


Heart Broken

by Bay45220



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang (Avatar)-centric, Aang Needs a Hug, Aang is hurt and needs to go, Angst, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, Eventual zutara breakup, F/M, Protective Suki (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 63,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26068210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bay45220/pseuds/Bay45220
Summary: The war is finally over but Aang is heart broken after seeing Katara and Zuko together. To avoid the pain, he makes a decision.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang & Toph Beifong & Katara & Sokka & Suki & Zuko, Aang/Katara (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 64





	1. chapter 1

It had been two weeks since Aang ended the war. Across the world the news spread of the Avatar's victory against the self-proclaimed Phoenix King Ozai and the fire nation. There was happiness everywhere. Everyone was happy except for one person, which was the Avatar himself. He was glad that he was finally able to end the war without having to kill Ozai but by taking his bending away. He had fulfilled his duty but had done it with a broken heart.

Before he had disappeared from Ember Island, he was feeling frustrated with the team. They were all pushing him to kill the fire lord but Aang refused to do so because of his air nomad beliefs.

"I'm not going to kill Ozai to win the war! There's has to be another way.", the air bender says while walking away from his friends.

"Don't walk away from this Aang! Get back here", Katara starts to go after him but is pulled back by Zuko.

"Let's just leave him alone Katara.", Zuko had been pushing Aang to kill his father but does not want to be forceful with him.

Aang, with Momo on his shoulders, would be gone from the house for a few hours. By the time he had come back it was dark. He had figured since everyone would be asleep it would be a good time to come back to the house. Once he was back in the house he heard some voices.

"I just don't know what we're going to do with him", it did not take long for Aang to recognize Katara's voice. He walked closer to find her and Zuko talking in the yard. They did not notice his presence.

"I know how you feel but you know Aang better than I do. He's not the kind of guy to go against his beliefs, even if he is the only one that still his.", Zuko said.

"I don't want to make him go against his beliefs but what other choices do we have? Your father won't hesitate to kill Aang", said Katara.

Aang understood how his friends felt but he just couldn't bring it within himself to take a life. Even if that life was the Fire lord. The monks had taught him that life was sacred.

"Lets just hope that we can still convince him. By the way Katara, have you told him anything about us yet?", asked Zuko.

'What does he mean by "us"', Aang thought to himself.

"No, I haven't told him yet. Aang and I haven't really talked too much together since we went to the play", Katara answered.

It was true. Ever since the team had saw the play that was loosely based on their adventures, things were not the same between Aang and Katara. Aang cringed as he remembered kissing Katara after she said she was confused. For some reason he had thought that would have cleared her confusion, but it just made her angry with him.

Aang instantly developed a crush on Katara since he had met her. Over the time they had known each other he had fallen in love with her. When he had kissed Katara on the day of the invasion he had hoped that they could be together once they had defeated the fire lord when he and the rest of the fire nation was at their weakest but their surprise invasion was expected. Aang and Katara never talked about the kiss until Aang had brought it up while they were outside of the play.

"Aang is going to have to know soon. I know we still have our hands full with the war, but we shouldn't hide this any longer", said Zuko with his hands on Katara's shoulders. Aang was starting to have a bad feeling.

Katara looked up at Zuko, "I don't like this either, but I know how much this could hurt Aang if he knew about us. I know that he has feelings for me, and he already has enough problems to deal with. I'm scared that this would be too much for him.".

'Spirits, please don't tell me this is what I think it is', Aang thinks to himself.

"It's best that we hold off telling him and everyone else until after we stop this war", Katara finally said. Zuko agreed.

"That's probably for the best. But until then…", Zuko brought his face closer to Katara and kissed her lips. She had cupped his cheeks in her hands and kissed back. Aang wanted to fall apart. He brought both of his hands up to cover his mouth so he could prevent any sound from coming and being heard. Momo was still wrapped around his shoulders and didn't know what was even going on. Aang had noticed his mouth about to part and make a sound so he took one hand off his mouth and covered Momo's mouth. The creature was confused but did not do anything. Even the flying lemur could tell that his friend was distressed.

Aang felt himself shaking and decided he needed to get out. He started to slowly back away and when he got through the door, he started running from the house. He ran for so long until he was tired out. The airbender stopped at a cliff with Momo still on his shoulders and was down on his knees.

His worst fear had come true. Katara, the girl who had been his best friend and the girl he loved, did indeed have feelings for Zuko and not him. Thinking back to seeing their kiss, Aang felt his chest splitting apart from the center. Tears started pouring down his face and he just couldn't hold back anymore. He started crying. It was all he could do.

'I should have known better! But I felt her kissing me back on the day of the invasion. So why?!', Aang thought to himself. He was confused and heart broken. He started to punch the ground he was on.

'Why?', he punched the dirt again. The boy kept asking himself and hitting the dirt. He would keep doing it while crying as much as he could. His knuckles had started to bleed from the excessive punching. Momo was already off Aang's shoulder at his point and stood at his right. He was saddened to see his friend this way and made a move to stop Aang from hitting the ground even more. He put his paws on Aang's arms, trying to hold them. The crying boy looked down to him and saw the look in Momo's eyes.

He had then noticed how much his hand was bleeding and felt the pain immediately.

"Thanks for stopping me buddy", Aang said. The lemur just got up and wrapped his wings across Aang's head to hug him. Aang just chuckled and gave his flying friend a hug back. "I'm glad you're here with me at least…", he said and instantly felt tired. He was feeling drowsy and was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. The last thing he saw before closing his eyes was a small island he could have sworn wasn't there before.

The small island had turned out to be a massive lion-turtle whom would give Aang the answers he had looked for on how to end the war without having to kill the fire lord. The battle was grueling and hard fought but once Aang was able to go into the Avatar State again, he had the upper hand. Soon after Aang took Ozai's bending away, three of his friends reached him in their stolen fire nation air ship. Toph, Sokka, and Suki were happy to see Aang after he had disappeared from Ember Island. He was relieved he did not see Katara or Zuko yet, since he did not want to be near them at all since he discovered their secret. His heart still ached from seeing them kiss. After containing Ozai in a cell in the air ship, Aang told his friends about how he took his bending away thanks to the help from the lion-turtle. His friends had been amazed that he was able to find a way to end the war without killing the so-called Phoenix King.

"Is there a place in this ship where I can get some rest? The fight really took a lot out of me", Aang asked Sokka, who was sitting down since his leg was broken.

"There is a room with a bed down the hall, judging by the size of it I think it might be the captain's quarters.", Sokka responded.

"We should be close to the fire nation palace soon, hopefully Zuko and Katara defeated Azula." Suki said.

As much as Aang did not want to see either of them, he still hoped that they were okay. He walked to the captain's quarters and threw himself onto the bed. It wasn't a good idea to jump since he still had bruises from his fight. He laid on his back and thought about what had happened to him in the past 24 hours. Despite being heart broken, Aang still missed Katara. He missed her smile, her eyes, and her voice. He missed everything about her and then the sight of her and Zuko came back to him. He had kept what he saw in the back of his mind when he woke up from his slumber that morning and during the battle. He still felt the pain of his chest being split apart and felt tears in his eyes. He wept as quietly as he could until he fell asleep. Despite how quiet he had tried to be, Toph had still heard his weeping.

'What's wrong with twinkle toes? He just beat the fire lord and stopped the war so why is he crying', She thought to herself.

The air ship eventually arrived at the fire palace and team avatar was reunited minus the Avatar who was still sleeping. Katara looked around for Aang when she met up with her friends.

"Where's Aang? Did he kill Ozai? Is he okay?!", Katara frantically asked.

"Whoa sis! Calm down, air boy is okay. He was able to beat Ozai. Without even killing him", responded Sokka.

"How did Aang beat my father?" questioned Zuko.

"Somehow, Aang was able to take away Ozai's fire bending", Toph answered. Katara and Zuko's eyes were wide.

"Where is he now?!" Katara asked.

"He's in the captain's quarters sleeping", Suki replied. Without a second thought, Katara ran into the air ship.

She had been worried sick about the air bender since he had disappeared. She had not seen him since he left the house with Momo on his shoulder refusing to even consider killing Ozai to win the war. Her first thought was that he ran away again until she noticed Appa was still with them. She knew he would have never left Appa if he ran away. She and the team looked all over Ember Island for him and could not find him anywhere. She had been scared that she would never see him again, and scared that her last moments with him would have been the arguments that they had on whether Aang should kill Ozai or not. Even though she did not respond to his feelings well on the night of the Ember Island play, she still cared about him. She had missed him dearly in his absence.

She reached the door to the captain's quarters. Before opening the door, Katara took a breath to calm herself. With the door open she immediately spotted Aang on the bed. He was sleeping on his side with his back facing her. She walked up to the bed to take a good look at him. Her eyes widened at the bruises and burns he had. The battle with Ozai had left him hurt and worn out. When she was close enough, she laid a hand on his shoulder and turned his body to get him to lay on his back gently without waking him up. Laying on his back, Katara was able to get a look at Aang's sleeping face.

"You did it Aang. You saved the world.", she said quietly. She was tempted to give him a tight hug but decided not to since she might wake him up. After the battle he had, the air bender deserved the rest. She noticed Momo sleeping next to Aang on his bed and gave him a pat on the head.

'It's a good thing Momo was at least with him', the water bender thought to herself. She then remembered what she had said to Zuko before. She still needed to tell Aang about her relationship with Zuko. Even though she said she would tell Aang the truth, Katara did not want to because she knew how much it would hurt him. Nothing has been the same for them since the Ember Island plays. She knows now that she is going to have to prolong telling him about her relationship with Zuko. He needed to heal first and Katara was just simply not ready to tell him.

"I'm happy to have you back. I don't ever want to lose you again I'll wait until you wake up to heal you.", she said despite knowing that he could not hear her. Finally, she bent down and kissed his cheek.

Once she got out of the captain's quarters she closed the door and walked back to meet up with the rest of their friends. Sokka still had a broken leg that needed healing. Unbeknownst to her, Aang was awake the moment she came into the room and had only pretended to be sleeping. He opened his eyes and turned his head to the door. Just being around her made his heart ache. He was going to have to make a plan soon.

"I'm sorry Katara but I'm not planning to stick around for long.".


	2. chapter 2

Two weeks since Aang made his decision, he had recovered from his injuries. He never looked forward to his healing sessions with Katara. Despite knowing about her secret relationship with Zuko, he still loved her and because of that love, it filled him with anguish being around her. Even though he was in pain, he didn't let it show. It was a time of celebration and he did not want to bring anyone down because of his personal problem.

Katara was happy to see him and help him heal. She would always talk to him during those healing sessions. The two of them talked about their battles, reminisced over memories they shared, and what they would do from now on. She and Zuko had still yet to tell their friends about their secret relationship. She was glad Zuko gave her more time to be ready, but she dreaded it. Katara was conflicted because she knew the news would hurt Aang. There had already been distance between them for awhile before the war ended. She feared that she would make things worse between them. At the beginning of the healing sessions, Katara had felt something was off with Aang but had figured that he was still mentally drained after saving the world.

The air bender, once fully recovered, went back to work on his Avatar duties. With Ozai and Azula finally taken down and locked up, the fire nation needed a new leader and Zuko would take on the reins. Aang knew he that his presence would be needed for the coronation. The world needed to see the new fire lord and the avatar together to show a new beginning for a world without war. To his friends and the world, the avatar was nothing but smiles and laughter, but he wasn't on the inside. He just wanted to take Appa and Momo and fly away from there.

As much as Aang loved Katara, he still wanted her to be happy even if it meant being with Zuko instead of him. When he thought of leaving at first, he felt that maybe he could have been being selfish.

'Maybe I'm being too rash about this. Who am I to say who Katara should love? It isn't like she and I still can't be friends. For all I know maybe he'll be better for her than I could ever be', he thought to himself.

He had figured he should at least take time to meditate and think about whether he could still stay. But over the days, he just couldn't find it in himself to stop the hurt he was feeling. He had seen the way Katara and Zuko were looking at each other and still felt the splitting pain in his chest. He had wanted to run away and cry somewhere, and he hated himself for it. Aang had thought that he was being childish, but he didn't know what to do. He already knew that just by leaving he was running away again. Just like he did after he overheard the monks talking about separating him and Gyatso. Just like he did when he found out the world thought he was dead after being stuck by Azula. If he left then he would just be running away again but it will be because he could not handle seeing the girl of his dreams with someone else. Zuko was still his friend and he didn't want to hurt him or Katara by even trying to break them up. Aang did not have it in him to do that to his friends. He had to go…it was for the best. For him and Katara.

A day after Zuko's coronation, Aang decided to leave that night. It just so happens that Katara finally decided to tell her friends the truth about her and Zuko. They had been meeting in secret still until then, but she knew that they could not keep it up forever.

'Despite how he feels, I will still need to make it clear to Aang that I will always care for him no matter what.' The water bender thought to herself.

The gang were together in the living room, talking and laughing. Momo laid on Aang's lap, he stayed by his side a lot since their last night on Ember Island and was the only one that saw how Aang really was when he wasn't with his friends. Momo may have never understood everything but he did know that his friend was hurt and was hurt because of the water bending girl and the fire bending boy. So he stayed by his side to comfort him when he looked like he needed it.

Although he could not communicate with Aang well, he could with Appa. In his and Appa's own way of communicating with each other. They always were able to understand each other despite being different creatures, the two of them just had a friendship that was that strong. The flying lemur told Appa about their air bending friend. Appa had known there was something off about Aang but did not know what it was until Momo told him. They were sad for Aang, the three of them are the last of their kind and so they felt a special bond with him. They had both agreed that no matter what, they would always be there for Aang.

The gang had just finished laughing over funny memories when Zuko raised his hand up and spoke, "Guys, there is something you need to know.".

Everyone including Momo turned to him. Katara was already sitting with him on the couch. Aang had a feeling he knew where this was going so he mentally prepared himself.

"Katara and I have been together in secret for some time.", Zuko continued and then Katara grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

"WHAT?!", Sokka exclaimed, as the group looked in surprise. Aang was just acting along with them. Only Momo knew how tensed Aang's legs were for a second.

"Since when?", Suki asked after she looked at Aang for any reaction from him and looked back at Katara and Zuko. She already had a feeling that the air bender had feelings for Katara and knew that he would be hurt.

"Since we went after the man that killed mom. After we confronted Yon Rha and I forgave Zuko, we realized that we had a lot in common and we got close.", Katara answered. She took one quick look at Aang specifically to see his reaction and he did look surprised.

She steeled herself so she could be ready to see Aang's hurt look, but it never came. He was surprised but he didn't look sad or hurt by the news. Katara was in disbelief but didn't show it.

"Because we were still dealing with the war, we thought it was best to keep it a secret so that we wouldn't cause a distraction." Zuko said but realized he should have said it in a different way. Everyone already had a feeling how he meant those words.

"How would it have been distracting? I mean I sure am feeling some type of way about my baby sister being with anyone but that's because I'm overprotective.", Sokka said. Toph and Suki mentally cringed because they knew what Zuko meant even if he did not mean for it to come off that way.

'Geez Zuko. You might as well tell them the truth if that's how you're going to be subtle about it.', Aang thought to himself. He knew Zuko meant that Aang would be distracted by their relationship, even he could not deny that it would distract him from preparing to face off again Ozai.

Toph and Suki already had an idea of who would be distracted. Even if Sokka did not.

"But now we feel that it is a good time to tell you guys. We had already planned to tell you guys after the war was over, but we all had been very busy even then", Katara said. It was not really a lie since they all had to do some work during the peace talks between the nations, but she knew it was mostly to prolong hurting Aang when he needed to recover. She also feared doing it because of how much it could affect her friendship with Aang. The water bender did not want to lose him again.

Aang however, was smiling as if he was happy. He didn't look hurt at all.

"I'm sorry you guys felt that way, but you know you don't need to keep secrets from us. We're your friends and we love you.", said Aang. Neither Katara nor Zuko could believe it. Sure, they didn't expect him to start crying in the living room, but he was handling the news way better they thought he would. Katara tried to get a good look into Aang's eyes to see if there was any truth behind it but was too far to see them. He was sitting on a soft chair that was too far for her to see anything in his eyes.

Suki and Toph both looked towards Aang's direction. Suki was surprised to see how well he took the news but Toph knew better. She immediately started listening to his heart rate when Zuko made his confession. There was no spike in his pulse, it was just pumping it normally did. At least when Katara was around him that is. It slowed down for a few seconds until it was pulsing like it was normally.

'I figured that of all people that you would at least be surprised, twinkle toes. Unless…", Toph thought back to when she had heard him weeping in the captain's quarters the day he defeated Ozai. 'Did you already know by then?'. She wanted to ask him right then and there but knew better not to. She would confront him later.

Sokka still had a lot of questions for Katara and Zuko. Being the overprotective big brother that he was, he had a duty to lay some ground rules for the newly revealed couple. Whether they wanted to hear it or not.

Eventually everyone got tired after eating dinner and had gone to their bedrooms to sleep. Except for Aang who had already packed all his belongings in his bag.

'What are the odds that they finally decide to reveal their relationship to us before I was leaving?', Aang asked himself. Either way he was finally leaving tonight. Before leaving his room he took out a scroll from the drawer in his desk and put it on his bed for the others to find when he was gone.

After closing his bedroom door, the air bender went straight to the stables where Appa was. When he reached the stable, he had noticed Momo resting on top of Appa's head. He didn't like having to wake up the flying bison from his slumber, but it was now or never. He woke the beast up and lured him out of the stable. Aang had jumped onto the saddle to put his bag securely on.

"If there was an award for acting, you would have won it Twinkle toes.".

He turned to see it was Toph behind him. "How could you have known-…oh yeah, my heart rate.", he replied.

He should have known better that Toph could tell when a person wasn't being honest. It had slipped his mind.

"Where are you going?", she asked.

"I'm just going away for awhile Toph. I need to be alone.", the air bender replied.

"It's because of Sugar Queen and Sparky, isn't it?".

Aang didn't give her an answer. He just looked down to his feet.

"You don't have to hide it from me Aang. I already knew you loved her since I've met you guys.", Toph said. The air bender jumped down from the saddle and landed in front of Toph.

"It was that obvious huh?", he asked with a smile.

"Your heart isn't exactly subtle about it at least", the earth bender replied smirking.

Toph had known that Aang loved Katara. She never said anything about it because she didn't want to embarrass him by teasing him for it. She already teased him enough as it was.

"Yeah I guess not".

"Where are you going Aang?", Toph asked one more time.

"I honestly don't know yet to be honest. I already planned to leave two weeks ago. If anything, I'm going to continue with my Avatar duties. That much I know for sure.", he answered.

"How long did you know about them?", Toph asked referring to Katara and Zuko.

"The night I disappeared from Ember Island. I came back to the house and overheard them talking. When I saw them kiss, I felt like I was about to fall apart right there so I ran out again until I was too tired to run.", He answered.

Toph was surprised. Aang knew about them for a while now and they had no clue about it. Toph knew how much he loved Katara, 'This must have been killing him on the inside for some time now. And he put on a brave face so that we wouldn't suspect anything was wrong with him.', she thought to herself. She already knew that Aang was the type of person to keep his problems to himself, except maybe his avatar problems but not his personal problems. It saddened Toph knowing that her friend was dealing with a broken heart and she didn't know about it. She personally didn't know what it was like to feel heart broken, so she couldn't really offer any advice for him. She had one more question.

"Were you really going to just leave us without saying goodbye?".

"Toph…. Well, I did leave a letter..".

"A LETTER?! Are you kidding me Aang? We've spent so much time together and you were just going to leave us a letter?", yelled Toph. Aang started to see tears forming in her eyes.

"Toph..".

"We're suppose to be friends aren't we? I can understand you wanting to get away.", Toph was shaking, "but you could have still said something to us! You're the first real friend I've ever had. How could you think of leaving without saying anything to Sokka and I?".

Aang wrapped his arms around his blind friend. He was being so selfish; it didn't occur to him how much his friends would be hurt by his leaving. 'I should have known better than to think that no one would be hurt if I just left without saying anything.', he thought to himself.

"I'm sorry Toph. I didn't mean to hurt you. You are my friend.", said Aang.

'She's not the only one that you should be apologizing to.", said a male voice.

Aang looked up to see Sokka and Suki walking up to them. Toph had known they were listening behind the wall but didn't care. She wrapped her arms around Aang's waist and rested her head on her chest, trying her best not to cry.

"Sokka…"

"Save it Aang.", Sokka said with his hand up. "I always knew that you loved my sister, so I understand that you're hurt.".

"You knew?", Aang asked. Suki responded before Sokka could.

"It's pretty obvious, Aang. Even I could tell how much you love her just by seeing the way you look at her.".

The air bender gaped at Suki. She couldn't help but giggle at his reaction. He really thought he did a good job of hiding his feelings for the water bender.

"Buddy, you went out of your way to use the line for my fishing rod to make a flower necklace for her after she had lost mom's necklace. Who do you think does stuff like that for their 'friend'?", Sokka pointed out. Aang's face had flushed with embarrassment. His friends, including Toph, saw his face and just laughed at him. He really thought that no one had noticed. Somehow everyone figured it out before Katara ever did.

"But in all seriousness Aaang, are you sure that leaving is really the best option for you", Sokka asked. Toph had let go of him and stepped back waiting for the Avatar's answer. He took a deep breath and looked up to his three friends.

"I'm sorry guys but it just hurts too much for me to be around her. Ever since I discovered their secret, I have felt this split in my chest. And it hurts a lot. I love Katara but she doesn't feel the same for me. I feel like I'm being selfish, but I can't help it. I don't know what else to do but to get away from her. I think this will at least be the best for me and Katara.".

"Are we at least going to see you again?", Toph asked quietly.

"Of course. This won't be the last time you see me Toph. You guys are still my family after all.", Aang replied. "We'll still see each other. I promise you that.".

Sokka stepped up to Aang and put his hand on his shoulder, "If you feel like you need to do this then we'll support you. As long as you don't become a stranger. You're the closest I've had to a little brother and I would hate to lose you.".

Aang was touched by what Sokka had said. He already looked up to him as an older brother. He hugged Sokka and the older teen hugged him back. They let go and Suki went up to Aang and hugged him too. Although they have never really talked with each other much before, there was still love and respect shared between the two. Maybe they can become closer when Aang decides to visit. Finally got in one more hug.

"You better keep that promise or I'll hunt you down.", Toph said with a smile.

"Don't worry, I won't break my promise.", the air bender assured.

Aang knew for a fact that he would see them again.

"Is there anything you want us to tell Katara or Zuko?", Suki asked.

Aang just shook his head. He didn't really have anything to say to them that wasn't in the letter that he left for them.

"The scroll I left should be enough. Plus, I want them to know about what we just talked about. Sokka I know you wouldn't want to lie to your own sister but-".

"Don't worry about it. We'll just act like we don't know anything.", said Sokka. The four of them had one group hug before Aang jumped to get on top of Appa's head.

"I'll see you guys real soon. Appa! Yip Yip!", the bison made a small grunting noise and took off into the air. The Avatar took one last look at his friends and waved his hand goodbye and they waved back to him. Toph of course didn't see his wave but she still knew to wave back.

The Avatar, along with Appa and Momo, was finally leaving. He hoped that Katara wouldn't be too hurt by his absence. Maybe one day his love for her will be gone and he could go back to being her best friend. He didn't know for sure what was going to happen from here on, but he looked forward to it.

The following morning, Katara came down the stairs and found the gang minus Aang eating breakfast. It was odd not seeing him there eating with them especially since he is usually the first one to wake up.

"Has anyone seen Aang?", the water bender asked.

"I haven't seen him all morning.", replied Zuko and then he turned to the others at the table, "Have any of you guys at least seen him?". Sokka, Suki and Toph just shook their heads as they kept eating their food.

"I'm going to see if he's in his room.", Katara says as she walks up the stairs. Maybe the young air bender was still sleeping and needed to be woken up. She was still surprised with how well Aang took the news of her relationship with Zuko. It was almost as if he wasn't really surprised at all but that couldn't be right. Zuko and her made sure that no one had caught them during their secret meetings. She eventually reached Aang's bedroom and knocked on the door a couple of times.

"Aang. Wake up.", she didn't hear a sound. Aang was never a deep sleeper but things could change. Katara opened the door and stepped inside the bedroom to find no one in there. The room was totally empty. 'Where could he be?', she thought to herself. She noticed that his bag was missing. Could Aang have gone somewhere without telling anyone? She walked up to his bed and saw a scroll on it. She picked up the scroll and opened it.

To whomever finds this scroll,

I have decided that I will be flying across the world and work to fulfill my Avatar duties. There are towns and villages that could use my help so I am leaving to do what I can to help. To my friends, I'm sorry for not telling you but I need to go on this journey on my own. Please do not look for me. The Fire nation still has Ozai sympathizers out there and I plan to stop whatever plans they have. While the world is finally without war, it doesn't mean that there will be no more conflicts. I had planned this for a while, so I know what I am doing.

Sincerely,

Avatar Aang.

Aang was gone. He had left her again. 'Why Aang why?! This is just way too sudden. Why would you leave us like this? Why would you leave me?'. Katara let out a sob. Her best friend had left her again. Was this because of her relationship with Zuko? It couldn't be. He said that he planned for this so he couldn't have just come up with a rash decision to after her and Zuko's secret was out. She ran out the room and down the stairs with the scroll crumbled up in her hand. Once she had reached the group she screamed.

"AANG IS GONE!".


	3. chapter 3

It had been one week since the Avatar left the fire nation palace. He already started missing his friends the day after he left. He had even missed Katara even though the purpose of leaving was to get away from her in the first place. What he said in his letter wasn't completely false. He did want to help the people of the world in any way that he could as the Avatar, although it was also getting his mind off of the water bender.

Right now, Aang was training. He had started the day with some earth bending and then fire bending. He planned to do some water bending training at the nearby lake but decided against it because it would just remind him too much of his water bending master. He could always do it later after all. Appa and Momo rested by a large tree, watching their friend practice his bending. They could sense his sadness and had been hoping he would be okay soon. Although Aang seemed a lot happier since leaving their friends, the animals couldn't help but worry for him. They could not communicate with them like they could with each other, but they would still be there for him. After making one last fire blast, Aang decided that he had done enough training and walked back to where his friends were resting.

"It's always good to work out a sweat every now and then.", the air bender said to his mammal companions. Appa grunted as if he was agreeing with him and Momo just flew up to Aang's shoulder and started licking his face. Aang was giggling as he was being tickled.

Then a scream was heard within the forest. Aang turned in the direction the screaming came from and pulled his staff to him with his air bending. He brushed Momo off his shoulder.

"You two stay here while I go fly and investigate.", Aang said although Appa didn't want his friend to leave him behind.

"Don't worry buddy. I'll be okay.", the air bender smiled at his friend. He opened his glider and flew into the air. It didn't take him long to find the source of the scream. Aang saw what had looked like three bandits cornering a woman with jet black hair with a large injured creature by her side. The animal looked familiar to the air bender for some reason.

'Where have I seen that creature before?'. Aang pushed the thought back as he dived down and landed between the dark-haired woman and the bandits. He swung his staff to push back the bandits with his air bending. He then stomped on the ground and brought his hand up to make the earth rise up around the bandits and encased them together. The attackers wouldn't be moving anytime soon.

Aang turned around to the woman, "Are you okay Miss?".

The woman stood up, "Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks for the help Avatar Aang."

"Wait…How do you know who I am?", Aang asked.

"We have actually met before. I once helped Zuko find you and your friends with my shirshu, Nyla", The woman responded. Aang took another look at the creature behind her and recognized it.

"Oh, it's coming back to me now. We had to confuse your shirshu's sense of smell to stop it from attacking us."

"Yeah, that's how I remember it going down too. Good times.", The woman giggled, "My name is June by the way."

Aang looked back at the three bandits, "Any idea why they were after you?".

"I caught one of their buddies for his bounty. They weren't too happy about it and so they made a sneak attack on me and Nyla while we were on our way to the fire nation palace.", June answered.

Aang was surprised, "The fire nation palace? So Zuko was summoning you for help?".

"Yup, apparently your fire lord friend needs me to look for someone.", June replied. Aang had a feeling he knew who Zuko wanted to her to find. His friends had already told him how they went to her before to help find him when he disappeared from Ember Island.

'It would make sense to go back to her for help finding me.'.

Nyla came up behind June limping behind. June stroked her pet's fur. "Looks like we're going to have to stop for tonight Nyla. You're too hurt to move any more today".

The shirshu just purred in response. Aang felt bad for the poor animal.

"If you guys need a place to rest then you can come with me to my camp. It's just me and my flying bison and lemur.", he suggested. June didn't see any problem with it, so she and Nyla went with him back to his camp. The sky became dark, so the air bender set up a fire and cooked some stew for June and himself. Nyla rested beside Appa, who wasn't so friendly with the shirshu at first until Aang asked him to calm down and be nice. Since his friend asked him then the flying bison did what he was told. Aang spoke with the female bounty hunter for a while about her hunts, how she met Nyla, and how she became a bounty hunter.

"So what are you doing by yourself Aang? Where are your friends at?", June asked him. She found it odd that he was just by himself.

"I'm just traveling alone. I needed some time to myself and just wanted to be away.", Aang replied, looking down at the fire.

"What prompted that? You don't strike me as an introvert.", June said.

"You're right, I'm not an introvert. Let's just say I needed to be away…for my own good.", The air bender replied.

"Would it have anything to do with the water bending girl?".

He looked up at June in surprise. "How did you know?", he asked.

"Just a feeling I had. You like her a lot don't you?". The bounty hunter replied smirking.

Aang felt his face getting red and looked away, "I'm in love with her. But she doesn't feel the same for me".

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because she's with Zuko now.", Aang said with a flat tone.

"Huh? When they came to me to look for you I made a joke about them being together and they vehemently denied it.", June said astonished.

"They were keeping it a secret from the rest of us. I ended up finding out before I "disappeared" off the island". Aang had explained everything to her. He didn't know why he was telling June of all people, but he wanted to talk to someone about it since he wasn't with his friends. It felt good to talk to someone about it and she listened intently to everything he said.

"The reason Zuko probably summoned you might be because they want you to find me.", Aang finally said.

"Hell, I wasn't even trying to find you and yet here I am with you.", June giggled, "If that turns out to be the case then I won't take the job. I owe you for saving me from those bandits.".

The air bender was grateful. "Thank you. I would really appreciate that.".

The next day Nyla was feeling better from her injury, so June decided it was the time to head out and resume their journey to the fire nation.

"Thanks for the help again Aang.", June said as she was packing her stuff on Nyla's satchel.

"No problem June. I'm always happy to help.", Aang replied with a smile and then continued, "Can you actually do me a favor?'.

"Sure. What do you need me to do?".

Aang pulled out a scroll from his bag. "Since you're heading over to the fire nation I need you to give this letter to Sokka. I want to give him and my other friends an update on how I'm doing and where they can send letters for me to get. I promised I would stay in contact with them. Make sure to give it to him without Katara or Zuko knowing about it".

June took the scroll and placed it in her bag, "I can do that. I guess this is goodbye for now."

"Yeah, hopefully we see each other again. I had fun talking to you", Aang said smiling.

"Maybe we will one day. But before I go…", June put her hands on Aang's shoulders to keep him still and brought her face down to his level.

"What are you doing Ju-", Aang was cut off when brought her lips onto his. She was kissing him. He couldn't believe what was happening to him. He then felt June push her tongue into his mouth and play with his. The air bender started to feel goosebumps all over. He's never experienced a kiss like this before.

She stopped the kiss and took a look at Aang's expression. His face was completely red with a look of astonishment.

"Y-y-y-y-y-you kissed me…", The air bender couldn't stop stuttering. June couldn't help but laugh at his reaction.

"You are just adorable", she said as she straightened up and climbed onto Nyla's saddle, "I hope that could at least help you get over that water bending girl. There are plenty of other girls out there for you Avatar Aang so I suggest you try not to be too hung up on her".

She took the reins and pulled, making Nyla take off. "See you around Avatar Aang", she yelled waving her hands back at him. Aang waved back, still in a daze. As soon as she was gone, the he fainted to the ground.

A few days later, June would arrive at the fire palace and meet up with Zuko. When Katara was informed of the bounty hunter's arrival, she ran as fast as she could to the meeting room. Since finding the letter that Aang left in his room for them, she had been worried sick. Her best friend had left her again to fly across the world and work on his avatar duties. It didn't make sense to her why he would just leave her like that without saying anything. She had been hysterical when she showed the letter to the team.

"AANG IS GONE!", Katara held up the crumbled-up scroll in her hand. Her friends just looked at her like she was crazy.

"Katara calm down. What do you mean 'Aang is gone'?", Zuko asked walking up to her. She gave him the scroll.

"Just read it. He apparently left to travel the world and work to fulfill his avatar duties.", the water bender replied. Sokka and Suki just looked at each other while Toph had her face down. The three of them were all thinking the same thing. 'It was a good thing we were able to at least say goodbye him before he left'.

"How could he just leave us again?", Katara said. She was in a state of shock. "We're his friends, he could have told us about his plan to leave. I just don't understand why he would just leave without saying anything to us?".

Sokka could not believe how badly his sister was reacting. Sure, Aang and Katara had been best friends for a while but he didn't expect her to take it this badly.

"Chill out Katara. Aang probably has his reasons for leaving abruptly.", Sokka said.

"Don't tell me to chill Sokka! What if something bad happens to him and I'm not there to help him?", she yelled back at him.

"Sugar Queen, Twinkle Toes isn't a weakling. He's already mastered all the elements. He isn't a kid that needs to be coddled. Besides this ain't the first time he's left, we'll probably see him soon again.", Toph spoke up.

"Toph has a point. Did he say that we wouldn't see him again in the letter?", said Suki.

"Well…no he didn't say that. He didn't say whether or not we'll see him again.", Katara replied.

"There we go then. We'll probably see him again real soon, I'm sure he has a reason for leaving without saying anything.", said Suki. She felt bad about keeping the truth from Katara but Aang made it clear he didn't want her knowing the real reason for his departure. Katara could not believe how well her friends were reacting to Aang's departure.

"But what could possibly be his reason to leave like this? We've always fought together so why would he feel the need leave us out like this?", the water bender asked. Zuko walked up to her after reading the letter and gave her a hug.

"Don't worry Katara. I'll ask June to find him for us. I'll send her a letter offering whatever price she wants. She won't resist a good pay.", said Zuko. Katara just laid her head on his chest, she didn't have any other ideas and June seemed like the best choice. Maybe June will be able to find Aang unlike last time.

"You should probably just summon that hunter lady here Zuko. We can't risk that letter getting in someone else's hand or otherwise people might go after Aang and hurt him. Just tell her when she gets here", Sokka said. He only made the suggestion because he knew it would take a while for the bounty hunter to arrive with her shirshu, thus giving Aang more time to get farther away before he could be caught.

"Good point Sokka. I'll just send a summons for her.", Zuko replied. Katara hoped that the bounty hunter would come soon enough and find Aang quickly. She just needed to wait.

Now that June was finally here, maybe Katara could convince her to go along with her to find Aang. She wanted to see him as soon as possible. Katara was just about to open the door for the meeting room when it swung open from the inside with June walking out with Zuko trailing behind her.

"What do you mean you won't do it? I'll pay you whatever you want, just name your price", begged Zuko.

"It's not always about the money Zuko.", June replied.

"Then why won't you find the Avatar for me?", Zuko asked. Katara's eyes widened, 'She's refusing to look for him?'.

"Because I don't have to.", she replied. Katara ran up to the bounty hunter and grabbed her hand.

"Please don't go. I need you to find Aang.", she begged. June just looked back at her wondering who she was until she remembered. 'The water bender'.

"I already told your boyfriend that I'm not doing it. What makes you think I'm going to listen to you?", June said.

"Please!", tears were forming in Katara's eyes, "I need to see him. I need to talk to him. He's my best friend and he left without saying anything to me or anyone else. I have to know why; but he could be in danger."

June just thought to herself, 'For someone in a relationship with someone else, she is incredibly clingy to Aang. I promised him that I wouldn't take the job but that doesn't mean I don't have to tell her anything.'.

"No means no girl.", she pulled her hand away from Katara.

"But why?!", the water bender asked hysterically.

"He doesn't want to be found that's why.", June replied, "He said so in his letter that he left for you didn't he? I'm not going to look for somebody that doesn't want to be found.".

"But-"

"Besides I already met him on the way over here. He saved mine and Nyla's life from some bandits trying to kill me. When I told him I was coming here he had a feeling that I was going to be hired to look for him. I owe him for saving me so that's why I'm not doing the job".

"Wha-at?", Katara and Zuko just stared at her.

"So, you know where he is?", the fire lord asked.

"No, I don't. I doubt he's at the same spot we met anyway. He should be long gone by now.", June answered.

"Do you know where he's going?", Katara asked.

"I didn't bother asking and even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you. The kid just wants to be left alone.", June replied. Katara just let the tears fall down her face at this point. She couldn't understand why Aang was acting like this. Why would he need time to himself? Is there something wrong with him and he chose not to tell her?

"Did he tell you why he wanted to be alone?", Zuko asked as he wrapped his arm around Katara's shoulder.

June just gave them both an annoyed look. "Yeah, but it's none of your business".

The bounty hunter turned around and walked away from the baffled couple. She still had one more thing to do before leaving the fire palace. As she neared the exit, she noticed Sokka coming out of a room. June walked as fast as she should to him before he was too far.

"Hey Pony tail!", she called out to him. Sokka turned around and saw her coming up. The bounty hunter took the scroll from her bag and handed it over to him.

"It's a letter from Aang. Make sure your neither your sister nor her boyfriend know about this.", She said and then walked away from the water tribe warrior. Sokka was bewildered but put the scroll in his pockets, he figured that he could wait until he met up with Suki and Toph in private. They would want to know what the letter said.

Later at night the gang got together to eat dinner. Zuko had told them everything about how the meeting with June went. Sokka, Sukki, and Toph were surprised to hear that June turned down a large amount of money to find Aang but understood why. Even though Katara and Zuko didn't know why Aang needed to be alone, the three of them did. Sokka looked up at his sister who was just picking at her dinner with her fork. She had been quiet since they all sat down to eat. Eventually she just got up muttering that she wasn't hungry anymore, excused herself and went up to her room. Sokka was able to get a good look at her eyes, she looked like she had been crying a lot. After they all ate and Zuko left, he whispered to Toph and Suki to meet him in his room.

"So, what's up snoozles?", Toph asked with an annoyed expression on her face. She would rather be sleeping. Sokka just took the scroll from out of his pocket to show her and Suki.

"June gave me this letter from Aang. Figured I should read with you two.", he said.

"That's great Sokka! I was hoping we would hear from him soon.", Suki said with a smile.

"Well don't keep us in suspense, read it.", Toph responded. Sokka nodded as he opened the scroll and started reading.

Dear Sokka,

Hope you, Suki, and Toph are doing well. I met June while she was on her way to the fire nation palace and figured I could send you a letter with her help since I wasn't near any post offices. I didn't want you to wait too long for any update from me. I'm doing fine on my own, Appa and Momo are well too. Since I left, I have been flying around the earth kingdom, making stops at villages and helping where I can. I'm already feeling a little better, but I still need time to myself. I hope Katara and Zuko are doing well in my absence, I've been worried about how Katara especially would take the news of my departure. I didn't leave a lot to say in the letter that I left on my bed, thinking back on it I am glad I was able to at least say bye to you and the girls. By the time you get this letter I will be flying to the southern air temple. I spoke with King Kuei and he set me up with a mailbox for you to send me letters in Ba Sing Se. I hope to hear from you soon. I miss you guys a lot.

Sincerely,

Aang

"I'm glad to hear that he's doing well", said Suki.

"Me too. Good thing he got that mailbox set up for us. Now we'ss able to contact him whenever we need to.", Sokka said.

Toph smirked, "Leave it to twinkle toes to worry about Katara even though she's the reason he left.".

Sokka turned to look at her, "Well he still loves her, so it's not surprising that he still cares."

"And Katara obviously still cares for him", said Suki, "She hasn't been the same since Aang left us.".

"Nothing has been the same without Aang. I miss him.", Toph said. They all missed the air bender immensely.

"I'm going to write him a letter. Maybe we can make a plan to meet up somewhere", Sokka finally said. Suki and Toph liked that idea, hopefully Aang will be able to make time between his avatar duties and hang out with them like before. Although it would likely have to be without Katara and Zuko, seeing as Aang still would not want to see them. Toph left for her room while Suki decided to stay and sleep with Sokka for the night.

'Aang is right to worry about Katara, she is taking this a lot harder than we thought she would. I know Aang was in pain seeing her with Zuko but maybe he could have at least planned this a lot better. I hate seeing my sister being so sad.', Sokka thought to himself. Suki could see that he was in deep thought.

"You okay Sokka?", his girlfriend asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm just worried about Aang and Katara. I know he has to deal with the pain of a broken heart, but I feel like he could have just said something to her before leaving.", Sokka replied sighing.

"Aang probably could have handled this better but it's already too late. We just need to accept it and do what we can for the both of them.", said Suki as she wrapped her arms around him, "Whatever happens now, we can deal with it together."

Sokka hugged her back, "You're right. We'll give him the time he needs and whatever happens will happen."


	4. chapter 4

Three months have passed since the Avatar left the fire nation palace. It had also been over a year since Aang was freed from the iceberg and met Katara and Sokka. It weighed heavily on his mind how far he has come since being freed from his frozen prison. The air bender was able to put a stop to the war after mastering all four elements, but his accomplishment could not do anything to ease the pain he was feeling in his chest.

Getting away from Katara was the only thing he could do to ease his pain and it did, but just barely. Aang still missed her a lot. Since he still missed her, the air bender kept thinking about her which defeated the purpose of why he left to begin with. The pain would linger heavily with her on his mind so Aang decided to keep himself as busy as he could be. Over the three months that he was gone, Aang helped out wherever he could. As the avatar he still had a duty to the world.

He still made sure to keep in contact with Sokka, Suki, and Toph so that they would not have to worry about him. They in fact made plans to meet up eventually at Kyoshi Island to hang out like old times, with the exception of Katara and Zuko. Aang felt bad about making his friends keep secrets from Katara but he knew he just wasn't ready to face her.

For now, Aang was on his way to Omashu. His only friend from the days before he was frozen, Bumi, had told him to come by whenever he felt like. With all that had been going on, the air bender felt that hanging out with his old friend like old times would be what he needed. Appa needed rest after flying for a while so Aang had him land at a nearby earth kingdom village.

"Thanks for the ride buddy. Get some rest while I go into the village and grab some food for us to eat", Aang said as he jumped off the bison's head. Momo jumped on to Appa's head and laid down to rest as well. Aang walked up to the village and looked up to the sign at the village entrance where it read 'Lu Rane Village'.

'Don't think I've been to this village before.', Aang thought to himself. As soon as he walked through, the air bender immediately felt eyes on him. He wasn't surprised, this happened wherever he went. He was used to people being in awe of him since he was the last air bender and Avatar, and now since he ended the war, everyone was in more awe of him. Aang waved and greeted everyone as he walked farther into the village. He happened to look to his right towards an alleyway where he saw a man backhand a teenage girl.

"I'm going to teach you some manners, you little skank!", the man said with his right arm raised up and poised to attack. Aang ran to them and caught the man's arm before he struck the girl.

"WHAT THE-", the man turned to see Aang.

"If your idea of teaching manners is by hurting someone then you're in no position to be teaching at all.", the air bender said. Before the man could say anything else, Aang blasted him away with his air bending. Aang turned to the girl to ask if she was okay and was taken back by her appearance. She looked similar to Katara with her dark skin and blue eyes. She had jet black hair, tied up in a ponytail. Her ears were pierced, and she had a silver nose ring on her right nostril. She wore a blue crop top with black pants. The girl looked to Aang with a look of disbelief.

"You're the avatar…", the girl said.

"Yeah that's me. My name is Aang, what's your name?", the air bender asked. The girl took a breath before she spoke.

"I'm Kano. Thanks for the save.", the girl said. 'That's a nice name', Aang thought to himself.

"It's no problem. What was that guy's problem?".

Kano scoffed, "that jerk was flirting with me and when I didn't reciprocate, he just got really mad. I didn't expect him to hit me though, so he caught me by surprise".

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be okay. He didn't hurt me too bad", she answered.

"Well I'm glad I was able to be of assistance. I should get going, I need to get some food for me and my friends.". Aang turned to walk away until he felt a hand grip his left arm.

"Wait, let me help you find your way around town. It's the least I can do for you.", Kano said.

"I don't want to be a bother.", Aang replied.

"You won't be a bother. I'd be happy to help the avatar."

"If you're sure I won't be a bother then I'll accept your help".

"Let's go then.", Kano said with a smile. She held on to Aang's left arm and led him out of the alley.

The two of them talked as they went around the village. The air bender was able to learn a lot about Kano. Her family was originally from the south pole and moved to the earth kingdom to for a better life. Once she turned fifteen six months ago, she started exploring the world with her friends and had been living in Lu Rane village for two months. Her friends were earth benders while she was a novice water bender.

'She's like Katara was when I met her. Maybe I can help her improve her water bending', the air bender thought to himself.

"If you want, I can teach you some water bending.", Aang suggested.

"Really?! I'd be honored if you could teach me.", Kano said elated. She had led him to a food stall that she frequented herself. The air bender picked out some fruits, vegetables, and hay for Appa. He paid the full price despite the merchant being willing to let him have the food for free but Aang insisted on paying.

"I won't be able to stick around for long so I'll teach you what I can.", the air bender said. Kano nearly tackled him to the ground when wrapped her arms around him. Unbeknownst to her, the air bender was blushing.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!", Kano couldn't help but be grateful. First, the avatar saves her in the alley and now he's going to help her become a better water bender. She just couldn't believe her luck. Finally, she let go of him when she realized how long she had been hugging him.

"Sorry about that.", she said. Aang just shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't worry about it.", Aang smiled, "Now that I got the food it's time to get back to my friends. Would you like to meet them?".

"I would love to meet them.". Kano had heard the stories about the avatar and his friends, so she was more than happy to meet them. They walked out of the village to where Appa and Momo were resting. The two mammals looked up to see their friend with a girl they had never seen before.

"Hey guys, I brought food and a new friend.", Aang said. Momo flew up to him and landed on his shoulders, sniffing for the food.

"Calm down buddy.", he grabbed the flying lemur and held him in front of Kano, "Kano, meet Momo. Momo meet Kano.".

"Awwww, he so adorable.", Kano said, petting his head. Momo grabbed her hand, sniffed it and started to lick, tickling Kano. Then Appa came over to them and grunted, Aang patted his nose.

"And this is my flying bison, Appa.", he said. Kano walked up to the bison and greeted him.

"It's nice to meet you Appa.", Kano said, patting his nose like Aang did. Appa in return stuck out his tongue and licked her. The water bender couldn't help but laugh.

"Well that's one way to greet somebody.", she said. Aang chuckled in response. He brought the hay to Appa and gave Momo some berries. The air bender then turned to his new friend.

"Would you like some stew?", he asked.

"As long as you don't mind.", Kano responded.

"I'd be happy to have dinner with you.", Aang said with a wide smile. Kano blushed in return, the avatar said he was happy to have dinner with her of all people. The two benders ate together and talked for a while. Kano wanted to ask Aang why he was traveling without his other friends that she heard of but thought it was better not to. She had only just met him and didn't want to pry into his personal life. Aang had suggested that they start water bending training in the morning and make use of the time he had before it was time to go to Omashu. Kano couldn't agree more seeing as she was excited.

Over the next three days Aang taught Kano most of what he had learned from Pakku and Katara. She had trouble getting the hang of the water whip and the octopus form but was able to master it thanks to his teachings. Kano's friends come over to watch them and get to know Aang as well. The girl's names were Sakshi and Suna. Sakshi was a tall, tan skinned girl with short brown hair. Suna had long red hair with pale skin and was the shortest of the three girls. The two of them were master earth benders and happen to be huge fans of Toph. They had asked Aang everything about his earth bending master, which he answered to the best of his abilities when he wasn't training Kano. It was Aang's last night before he and his mammal friends left for Omashu in the morning and so he decided to have one last dinner with his new water bending friend.

"Thanks again for the lessons.", Kano said as they both sat by a campfire, eating vegetable stew that Aang cooked up.

"It's no problem. It was a nice experience being a teacher instead of a student for once.", Aang responded.

"Are you sure that you can't stick around longer?", she asked.

"I would like to keep your training going but it's time for me to go and see Bumi. I haven't seen him since the war ended and I promised I would go see him to hang out like old times.".

"It must be great to still have one friend still around from the time before you froze."

"It is. I was happy to see him again after so long and was especially glad he was still the same old Bumi that I knew. Being old and king of Omashu didn't change him at all."

"That's good to hear. I will miss our training sessions though, I feel like there is still much for me to learn.", Kano said. Aang put his bowl of stew to a side and stood up.

"Don't worry, I got something for you to use to practice.", the air bender jumped over to Appa's saddle and took some scrolls out from his bag. He jumped back to where Kano was sitting and held out the scrolls for her to take.

"Just use these water bending scrolls to keep up with your training.", Aang said. Kano was hesitant.

"Are you sure it's okay for me to use these?"

"Of course. When you're done with them just give them back to me next time we see each other.", Aang assured. Kano stood up and took the scrolls from him.

"Thank you. It means a lot to me even after all you've already done for me."

"Don't mention it. I'm happy to help someone reach their full potential. You're going to be an amazing water bender.", Aang said with a smile.

"Do you really think so?", Kano blushed.

"I know you will be."

Kano jumped up at the air bender and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. Aang returned the embrace and was glad she didn't manage to almost tackle him to the ground again like before. Kano then pulled her head back to look at him.

"That really means a lot to me Aang."

"Well I said it because it's true.", Aang replied, smiling. Without thinking, Kano closed her eyes and pressed her lips against him. Just like with June, the air bender was surprised at this until he remembered what the bounty hunter had said to him.

"There are plenty of other girls out there for you Avatar Aang, so I suggest you try not to be too hung up on her"

He didn't think too much about what she had said because he had still been in a daze at the moment and fainted. Now Aang was starting to understand what the bounty hunter had said to him.

'Maybe June was right…', Aang thought to himself. He pressed his lips towards Kano's and returned the kiss then closed his eyes. Remembering what June did to him, he pushed his tongue through Kano's lips and played with her tongue. The water bender was caught off guard by this but welcomed it with a moan and went along with it. The kiss had started to get passionate until an image of Katara popped up in Aang's mind. He opened his eyes and broke the kiss by backing away from Kano. The water bender hadn't moved and looked at Aang with confusion and worry.

"Are you okay?", she asked. Aang didn't respond as he was thinking to himself why he had kissed her back.

'Why did I do that? I know that June said that there are other girls for but that didn't mean I had to go around kissing other girls.', He thought back to when he met Kano and everything that had led up to now, 'Do I even like her like that? Is it because she reminds me of Katara? When I met Katara, she couldn't bend a straight line of water. It wasn't until she went with me to the north pole that she became a master. Even Kano was a novice when I met her and now look at how far she has come. She reminds me so much of Katara so maybe that's why I was so inclined to help her with water bending. The two of them are just so similar. Was I trying to replace Katara with Kano and didn't even realize it?'

After not getting an answer from him, Kano walked up and put her hand on Aang's shoulder, shaking him.

"Aang! What's wrong?", she asked. This time the air bender heard her and looked back at her.

"Nothing is wrong…I'm okay. We just shouldn't have done that.", Aang replied.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault, I kissed you without thinking.", Kano said, feeling dejected. She wanted to crawl into a hole. She felt that she should have known better than to kiss the Avatar of all people. 'After all he's already done for me and I just made it awkward now.', Kano thought to herself.

"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't have kissed you back like that. I shouldn't be kissing anyone at all anyway."

"Why not?", Kano asked curiously. Aang wasn't sure if he should tell her everything. They hadn't known each other that long but he didn't know June that well either.

"I just…My mind just isn't in the right place as of now.", he responded.

"Is that also why you're traveling without the rest of your friends?", Kano didn't want to bring up his friends, but she couldn't help herself. She was too curious not to know.

"Yeah, I never really had time to myself since I've met my friends and since the war is over, I need it.", the air bender answered. That wasn't enough for Kano though.

"I can understand needing some alone time but how should that prevent you from kissing me or someone else?", Kano had a feeling there was more to why he was by himself.

"Well…I also just needed to be away from someone in particular", Aang responded, looking away from her.

'So he's avoiding one of his friends…but I still don't understand why he thinks he shouldn't kiss-…Oh.', Kano figured it out. Aang left because he had feelings for one of his friends and for some reason it didn't work out. Who could it have been though? She had heard the stories of the famous team Avatar and knew there was at least three girls in the team. A Kyoshi warrior, an earth bender, and a water bender. From what Kano had heard, the water bender and the avatar were especially close to each other. Maybe she was the one that Aang had feelings for.

"Are you avoiding your water bending friend? Her name was Katara, right?", she asked. Aang was at first surprised by the question but figured that people must have noticed how close he and Katara had been.

"Yeah, she's the one.", Aang looked at Kano with a sad smile, "I just needed to get away from her.".

"Is it because you love her?".

"Yes."

"Does she know?"

"Yeah, she knew. She chose someone else though.", he answered.

"Oh, sorry to hear that".

"Don't be. I should be the one that's sorry. I kissed you back even though I still love Katara. You reminded me of her, and I think that's why I kissed you back like that. A friend also told me that there were other girls out there for me and I shouldn't be so hung up on her. I was replacing her with you and that's not right. It wouldn't have been fair for you.", said Aang.

"Well if we're being honest, it's not like I wouldn't like being with you.", said Kano. Maybe she could help him get over Katara. Aang just shook his head and gave her a serious look.

"Kano ever since we met just days ago, you have only seen me as the Avatar. Whatever feelings you think you have for me is just admiration. Yes, I saved you from that creep and taught you as much as I could on water bending but you don't see me as Aang, just as the Avatar. There's more to me than just that.".

Kano wanted to argue with him, but she knew he was right. She had only known him for a few days, and she did admire him. Not just for saving her and giving her water bending lessons but because he was indeed the Avatar. What girl wouldn't want to be with the Avatar? Sure, he's famous but that didn't mean she really knew who he was at his core.

"So where does this leave us then?", Kano finally asked.

"We can still be friends Kano.", the air bender answered smiling. The water bender was grateful for that at least.

"I'd like that very much and I promise that I will do my best to just see you as Aang, not the Avatar."

"Thanks.".

"Can I still hug you at least? As friends of course!", Kano asked nervously. Aang just chuckled.

"Sure", he stepped forward to Kano and wrapped his arms around her and she did the same. Although she hugged him a lot tighter and was practically squeezing the air out of him.

"Kano…too tight.", Aang muttered.

"Oh sorry", Kano loosened her grip, "By the way, where did you learn to kiss like that? I wasn't expecting that at all.", she asked giggling. Aang's face reddened.

"The friend that told me not to be too hung up on Katara did that to me to help me get over her. I didn't even know that was a thing to do when you're kissing someone.", he admitted.

"You don't have to do that to every girl you kiss for the first time. Usually you have to be pretty far in a relationship to start doing that."

"Seriously?!", Aang was flabbergasted. Kano laughed at his reaction.

The rest of the night they continued talking until it was time to sleep.

Morning came and Aang was packing his things on to Appa's saddle when Kano came back to the camp with Sato and Suna. The three of them wanted to make sure to say goodbye to him before he left. The air bender jumped down after putting away the last of his luggage.

"It was nice to meet you all", he said.

"It was. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see each other again.", Kano replied. She was sad to see him go.

"I'm sure we'll see each other soon", Aang said. He then looked to both Sato and Suna, "I promise to talk to Toph about making you guys her new metal bending students."

The girls squealed with glee and thanked him profusely. Aang and Kano just laughed at how excited they were.

"I'll be sure to master the moves from the scrolls you gave me as soon as I can.", Kano said.

"Take your time Kano. I'm already a master water bender so I'm not in a rush to take them back. Just make sure to show me your water bending next time we meet.".

"I will", Kano replied. With that, they hugged one last time. Aang gave Sato and Suna a hug too before jumping onto Appa's head.

"We'll see each other soon", Aang assured them, "Alright Appa, YIP YIP!". The bison grunted and took off. The air bender looked back down at the girls and waved them goodbye. The girls waved back until they could no longer see them.

Momo jumped onto Aang's shoulder as they flew off towards Omashu.

"Alright you two. It's time to go see our good old friend Bumi".


	5. chapter 5

Aang, Appa, and Momo finally arrived at Omashu after a few days of traveling. The citizens of the kingdom cheered when they saw them land in the city, the Avatar's presence was just as a big deal here as it was everywhere else. Aang wasn't sure if he would ever get used to all the love and praise he had been receiving since ending the war. Not wanting to be rude, he waved at the citizens.

Bumi came out of his palace with his royal guards at his side. Aang felt a surge of joy as he saw his old friend walk up to him. He jumped off Appa's head and the two friends hugged it out.

"It's always good to see you Aang.", Bumi finally said.

"Likewise, Bumi", the air bender replied. The two friends broke off the hug and Bumi turned to face the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The savior of the world, AVATAR AANG!", he addressed the crowd, holding Aang's arm up.

The crowd cheered, the air bender blushed, still not used to this kind of attention. The two friends turned and walk to the palace with the royal guards waking behind them while Appa and Momo were led to the stables.

"You didn't have to announce my presence here like that.", Aang said.

"You deserve it after all that you've done for the world", Bumi replied.

"I was only fulfilling my duty as the Avatar. Besides it's not like I did it all by myself, I never would have been able to end the war without my friends."

"I swear Aang, you're just too modest. But its one of the many things that I like about you."

The palace doors closed as soon as Aang and Bumi entered the building. The king led his friend to the dinner table. The table was filled with freshly made food that suited Aang's vegan diet. The two friends sat down and continued their conversation.

"I didn't think that you would be traveling alone. I at least expected your friends to come along with you, especially Toph. She and I still have a score to settle after all.", Bumi said as he took a bite of his chicken drumstick.

"I just need some time to myself. Ever since I woke up from the iceberg, I was always with my friends, so I never really had time to myself.", the air bender replied then sipped some juice.

"And….?"

"And what?"

"Aang you're an extrovert so I know that there has to be more to why you are traveling by yourself.", Bumi knew Aang well and figured there had to be another reason as to why his friends weren't with him. The air bender sighed; he was going to have to tell Bumi the truth.

"I just needed to get away from someone in particular…", Aang said, looking down at his food.

"The water bending girl, Katara I believe her name was."

"How did you know?", Aang looked back at Bumi with a surprised look on his face.

"Who else would it be?", Bumi chuckled, "If it was any of your other friends then I'm sure whatever issue you had with them, you would have settled it. But in her case it's different isn't it?", Bumi answered

'Guess there's no point in avoiding telling him', the air bender thought to himself. He took a breath and told Bumi everything. The king listened intently to everything Aang was telling him and felt a great sadness for his friend. While everyone was celebrating the end of the war, his best friend was dealing with a broken heart.

"I already had a feeling that you liked her, but I didn't think that you were in love with her.", he finally said after Aang finished talking.

"It started as a crush when I woke up in her arms but in the time that we've spent together, I fell for her.", Aang admitted. It didn't surprise him that Bumi knew about Aang's feelings toward Katara, despite coming off as a crazy old man, Bumi had always been observant.

"Since it has already been a while since you've seen her, how do you feel?", Bumi asked.

"Honestly…I still love her but every time I think of her, I see her and Zuko together and then I start to feel the pain in my chest again. So, I just avoid thinking about her by keeping myself busy with my avatar duties.", Aang answered.

"Just how long do you think you can just avoid her?"

"I don't know Bumi", the air bender said dejectedly.

"Well then maybe I can help keep your mind off her. It has been a while since we took a ride on the delivery system, has it not?", Bumi suggested smiling.

"Well what are we waiting for then?", Aang stood up with a smile.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOOOOO!", the two friends screamed as they were sliding down the Omashu delivery system. The citizens of Omashu turned when they heard the screaming and saw the Avatar and their king using the delivery system as a slide instead of it's intended purpose. The two friends made sure to go down every route that they could go through around the kingdom. By the time they were done, the sky had darkened.

"That was fun Bumi!", Aang exclaimed. He never realized how much he missed sliding on the delivery system.

"It sure was. No matter how many times I do it, sliding never gets old.", Bumi replied.

"I don't know about you but I'm tired", Aang yawned, "I need to get some sleep."

"I'll have you escorted to your room then.", Bumi waved to one of his servants, "Take the Avatar to his bedroom".

The servant bowed and led the air bender to his chambers.

"Good night Bumi", Aang waved to his friend.

"Good night Aang.", Bumi waved back. When Aang turned away Bumi chuckled to himself.

"Get some rest old friend…you're going to need the energy tomorrow.". The old king couldn't wait to see his plan go into action tomorrow.

The next morning, the Avatar felt additional weight on the bed he was sleeping on. Slowly, he opened his eyes to see a woman he had never met before sitting on top of him. She had light brown skin, jet black hair, and looked to be in her early twenties.

"Um, can I help you?", the air bender nervously asked. The woman just gave him a wicked smile in return.

"You can help me by letting us help you", she replied.

"Us?", Aang questioned and then looked around the bedroom. There were nine other woman, all very beautiful, looking at him like a predator ready to pounce on their prey. He then noticed that they all had robes on.

"What's going on?", he wasn't sure if he was going to like where this was going.

"King Bumi has requested that the best women from the Omashu Brothel come to the palace and offer their services to the Avatar.", the woman still sitting on top of him answered.

"BUMI DID WHAT?!", Aang screamed. This isn't what he had in mind when Bumi said that he would help take his mind off Katara. He sat up and pushed the woman off him.

"This is a mistake! I don't need you ladies to do this for me.", he said.

"Oh, but we want to do this.", one woman on the right side of his bed said.

"It's not every day we get to pleasure the Avatar", another woman on the left side of his bed spoke.

"I've always wondered how good an air bender could be in bed.", the lady he pushed off said. They all started to crawl on to the bed and reaching out for him. Aang backed up as much as he could.

"That's nice and all but I would rather that we didn't.", Aang jumped off the bed and made a dash for the door but was stopped when the earth from the floor came up and kept his legs in place. Then two small pillars rose up at both sides around him and encased him hands. The air bender turned his head back and saw that it was one of the sex workers that used earth bending to keep him in place.

"We were also told that you might resist so we were prepared.", one of them said. All ten of them walked up to him and surrounded him in a circle.

"Come on ladies, can't we talk about this?" Aang nervously asked. Unfortunately, the women weren't listening as they stripped off their robes. None of the women had worn anything under their robe, Aang's face couldn't get any redder from blushing.

'I need to find a way out of this.', he thought to himself.

Back at the fire nation, Katara was practicing her water bending at a fountain within the fire palace garden. It was the only thing she could do to keep her mind off everything, including Aang. But lately, not even water bending had helped in keeping her mind off the air bender.

Ever since his absence, the water bender just was not the same. Almost every night she had been crying in her room. Katara missed him dearly and nothing was the same with him gone. Just when she thought that she wouldn't lose Aang again like before, she did. She was familiar with the pain because she had gone through it before when Azula struck Aang in Ba Sing Se and when he flew off after waking up on the fire nation ship. Although the pain she was feeling currently was ten times worse because she knew that Aang didn't want to be found. He was avoiding her, and their friends and she couldn't figure out why. She would have understood if Aang really felt that he had to go traveling the world and fulfill his avatar duties if he had just talked to her before leaving but he hadn't. He just went off while everyone was sleeping, leaving only a letter that didn't explain enough about why he left.

Katara sighed to herself as she dropped the water she was bending.

"You okay Katara?", a voice asked. She turned around to see Zuko standing behind her.

"Yeah, I'm alright Zuko.", she replied but Zuko wasn't convinced that she was being honest.

"That isn't true, and you know it. You haven't been the same since…you know", the fire lord said.

"Just say it Zuko. I haven't been the same since Aang left.", Katara looked back at the fountain.

"I also know that you have people listening for any information on his whereabouts. What are you hoping to accomplish from that?"

It was true that she had people bringing her any information they had on the Avatar. From what Katara had heard so far, Aang really was going around the world helping wherever he could. He was constantly on the move.

"I'm going to find him."

Zuko let out a frustrated sigh.

"Katara, its been made clear to us that he doesn't want to be found. Why can't you just leave him be for now?"

"He's my best friend Zuko! I just have to find him. I need to know why he left the way he did and why he needed to be alone.", Katara knew she was being unreasonable but couldn't help it.

"Do you think he found out about us before we told everyone?", the water bender asked as she turned to face Zuko.

"We were careful with our secret meet ups, so there is no way he could have found out about us.", Zuko replied. His assurances didn't seem to convince her though.

"And besides, nothing in his letter indicated that he left because of us.", continued Zuko.

'He's right but there just has to be more than what Aang told us in his letter. It just doesn't make sense for him to just go off to travel the world, fulfilling his avatar duties and not say anything to us about it. We've helped him stopped the war so why doesn't he just let us help him with his avatar duties?', she thought to herself.

Katara had tried to rationalize why her best friend left like he did for months now but could never come to a logical conclusion. It had been little over a year since she and Sokka found Aang in the iceberg and started their journey together. She had spent so much time with the air bender that she got used to him always being there and now he wasn't. It was as if he took a part of her with him when he left.

As much as Zuko assured her that Aang didn't leave because of their relationship, he himself wasn't so sure. He had his own suspicions that Aang left the way he did because of him and Katara but didn't know it for sure.

"I'm sure that we'll see him again Katara. Let's just give him some time and he'll come back.", the fire bender said.

"Time?! He's been gone for months now, how much more time do you think he'll need?", Katara snapped.

"He's the Avatar. Aang is probably going around helping people around the world and I'm pretty sure that can be time consuming. I'm in charge of the fire nation and it keeps me busy too so imagine how it is for him since he has to work to take care of the world.", asserted Zuko.

"No one is forcing him to do it alone. The others and I could have gone along with him.", Katara countered.

"That's true but I'm sure he has his reasons. Maybe what Suki said before was right and we'll see him again soon."

'We'd better see him soon. I'm miserable without him', the water bender thought to herself.

The king of Omashu couldn't contain himself when Aang finally got away from the women in his bedroom, although not unscathed. With the women all over him kissing his upper body and his face, he used his fire bending to heat up his hands and feet in order to melt the earth off of him. Aang then blew away the women with his air bending before they could successfully take his pants off. Without hesitating he ran through the doors, leaving an Aang-sized hole. He ran as fast as he could to the royal court where he knew that he would find his old friend.

Bumi immediately started cackling with laughter at the sight of Aang, not even the royal guards with him could stop themselves from giggling. There were lip stick stains all over his upper body and face and his pants were somewhat torn thanks to the women that tried to tear them off.

"Oh yeah! Laugh it up why don't ya?!", Aang was fuming, "Not like you didn't order a bunch of women to sexually assault me."

"Oh, calm down Aang.", Bumi wiped a tear from his eyes from laughing so hard.

"Calm down? Bumi this isn't what I had in mind when you said you would help me get Katara off my mind."

"Well if you want to stop thinking about her then I suggest you start thinking about other women. How else do you expect to get over that girl? You can't avoid her forever.", the king replied.

"Not like this! Plus, I can't be doing something like that with just any woman.", Aang replied.

"What do you mean by 'that'? You're 113 years old now, just say sex. We both learned about it before you were in the iceberg.", said Bumi. The air bender had an embarrassing blush on his face.

"That's beside the point! I want my first time to be with someone that I love, not with ten strangers that I don't know."

"Hogwash! I'll have you know that those ten strangers are the best sex workers in all of Omashu. And the whole 'with someone that you love'? Oh please, in my experience it's a lot more fun with more than one woman.", Bumi snickered.

"Well that's just how I want it to be.", Aang retorted. The king stood up from his seat and walked up to him.

"And just how long will it be for you to find someone else to love when you're still not even over that water bender?", Bumi questioned.

"I don't know…", the air bender lamented, looking away from his friend.

"We both know that she doesn't love like you love her from what you have told me so why torture yourself like this? You may be avoiding her but you cannot do that forever."

"I know that I can't do it forever Bumi.", Aang growled. He knew that better than anyone, but he didn't want to just move on with a different girl. He couldn't kiss Kano without Katara popping up in his mind.

"So toss away that fantasy of waiting for someone new to love. Just go back to that room and get on with it."

"I'm not doing it Bumi. This isn't how I want it to be. I'll have sex with the woman that I know I'll want to marry and have a family with. That's just how I am.", Aang wasn't going to be swayed, "Plus, you have a wife too don't you? One that you started a family with as well."

"Wives."

"Huh?"

"I don't have a wife Aang. I have multiple wives, eight to be exact.", Bumi stated with a deadpan look on his face.

"Really?", the air bender was astonished.

"Yes really. It's called a harem which is something I would suggest you have as well. Especially considering you are the only air bender alive; you can have a harem to repopulate the air nation. I was able to sire sixteen children and now have twenty-four grandchildren.", Bumi said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh wow. You really have that many kids and grandkids?"

"I am a king. My father had a harem and so did his father."

"I don't know if I can imagine myself marrying multiple women though."

"Well it's up to you either way. No one will force you to have a harem if you don't want one.", Bumi shrugged. He then put his hands on Aang's shoulders and had a serious look on his face.

"Aang you have been and always will be my best friend so I just want to help you as much as I can. I may not have suffered a broken heart like you are right now, but I can see how much pain you're in. I only did what I did to help you."

"I appreciate what you're trying to do Bumi, I really do. But I'm not ready for the kind of help those women could have gave me. I may be 113 years old but I'm still physically and mentally a thirteen-year-old, so I don't think I'm ready for sex anyway. I was thinking we could just have fun by pulling shenanigans like we used to back in the day.", Aang replied with a smile. The king let out a sigh.

"Alright then Aang. If that is what you want then I will be happy to oblige. What would you like to do then?"

"How about before we pull some shenanigans, we do some earth bending sparring? Toph taught me well and I want to see how I fare against the king of Omashu.", Aang said with a devious smile.

"I can get behind that. Let's see how far you have come, young Avatar.", Bumi challenged with a smirk.

"Don't worry Bumi. I won't disappoint you."


	6. chapter 6

After the Avatar and his furry companions had stayed in Omashu for a week already, the three of them were flying towards Kyoshi Island. He was grateful for the time he got to spend with King Bumi. It was almost like the old days before he went into the ice 100 years ago. The two would spar, pull pranks, and wined and dined.

Sokka had suggested that they meet up there since it had been a while since they had seen each other. He had promised to make sure that Katara and Zuko wouldn't know anything about their meeting. The water tribe warrior would tell them that they were going to Kyoshi Island to meet up with the rest of the Kyoshi warriors since Suki hadn't seen them in a while. Toph would say that she was going back to Gaoling to see her parents and would use the same ship that Sokka and Suki would use. Katara and Zuko wouldn't know about the true purpose of their trips.

The island was in full view and Aang couldn't be any more excited to see his friends again after so many months. He was especially glad that he wouldn't have to worry about meeting Katara and Zuko, he still wasn't ready to see them again. Although the air bender felt guilty for feeling that way. He started to shake his head.

'Stop! I can't keep thinking about them. I'm here to see Sokka, Suki, and Toph. Thinking about those two will just bring me down.'.

The flying bison landed right in front of the village where the people stood excited to see the Avatar. They were all cheering for him and one young man started foaming at the mouth and fainted at the sight of Aang.

'I sure hope that guy is okay. Think I saw him do that the first time that I was here.', Aang thought to himself. The air bender jumped off Appa's head and greeted the villagers.

"Avatar Aang, it is so good to see you again.", Oyaji, the village leader, said as he walked up to Aang.

"It's good to be back on Kyoshi island sir," Aang bowed, "Have my friends arrived in the village as well?"

"No but I'm sure they will be here today. The ship they took probably isn't as fast as flying in the air would be.", the village elder responded.

"Well I don't mind waiting for them."

Oyaji led Aang to the house that he had stayed in previously with Sokka and Katara.

"Everything should ready for you Aang. Please let us know if there is anything we could do for you.", Oyaji said.

He thanked the village elder and turned to walk into the house until he heard a voice call out his name.

"AANG!"

The air bender turned to see a Kyoshi warrior running up to him.

"Hi…do I know you?", he asked as the warrior stood in front of him and embraced him with a tight hug.

"Oh yeah, you probably don't recognize me with my makeup. It's Ty lee.", the girl responded. Aang's eyes widened in surprise and then he returned the hug.

"It's nice to see you again Ty." The two friends broke off the hug. The two formally met after Zuko's coronation and got to know each other better.

"You got taller since the last time I saw you. Last time I saw you, your head went up to my shoulder but now you're as tall as me."

"Well I'm still growing. All the years stuck in that iceberg I was the same height. Maybe my age is catching up with me.", Aang shrugged.

"Maybe", Ty giggled, "It's a good thing you're still the same cute avatar. You're just growing up and becoming handsome now."

"Handsome? I don't know about that…", Aang rubbed the back of his neck.

"Don't be so modest Aang.", she said as she patted his bald head.

"Hey Ty! How about you don't leave your friend hanging? You're the only person I know here and I don't want to talk to anyone I don't know.", a new female voice said. Aang looked over Ty Lee's shoulder to see Mai, her friend and Zuko's ex-girlfriend.

"Sorry Mai but as soon as I heard Aang was here, I had to see him.", Ty replied.

"Hi Mai.", Aang waved at her. He didn't know Mai well unlike he did Ty Lee considering they had never interacted before. Most of what the air bender knew about her was from what Zuko told him.

"Hello Avatar Aang", she replied awkwardly. She wasn't sure how to act around him since she used to help Azula to try to capture him but seeing as Ty Lee was able to become friends with him, she hoped things between them wouldn't be awkward.

"Just call me Aang.", he said. Even though he was the avatar, he wanted others to see him as an air bender first.

"I'll try to remember that.", Mai responded with a smile. Ty Lee turned back to Aang.

"So what brings you to Kyoshi Island? Last I heard, you were traveling around the world and doing avatar stuff.", she asked.

"I made plans to meet up with Sokka, Suki, and Toph here. It's been a while since I've seen them so I'm here to hang out and catch up with them.", the air bender answered.

"They weren't traveling with you?", Mai asked.

"No, I've been on my own."

"His friends have been in the fire nation since he left.", Ty Lee said to Mai and then turned back to Aang, "Suki told me in a letter that you left to travel the world and about Zuko and Katara. How have you been?", she asked with a concerned tone.

"I'm fine, why do you ask?", the air bender questioned with a confused look on his face.

"I'm asking because I know you must have been hurt after finding out about Zuko and Katara. I figured that's why you left.", Ty responded.

"Whaaaaaat? That's not why I left…I left because I have to fulfill my duties as Avatar on my own.", Aang denied.

"You don't have to deny it Aang. It was already obvious to us since we started to chase you with Azula that you have feelings for Katara.".

"Yup, even Azula knew it. That's why we imprisoned her in the catacombs at Ba Sing Se, we knew that you would come looking for her.", Mai spoke up.

The air bender felt like slamming his head against the wall. He couldn't believe that even his then enemies could figure out his feelings for the water bender. They even used that against him to lure him into their trap.

"Did Suki tell you I left because of that?", Aang was wondering if the Kyoshi warrior was telling others what she knew.

"No, she didn't. I was just able to figure that out on my own. I would have done the same if I was in your shoes.", Ty lee assured him.

"I already made plans to leave, it was just a coincidence that they revealed their relationship to us that night. I already knew about it.", the air bender explained.

"Oh wow! You already knew? That means you were on the same boat as Mai.", Ty pointed to her gloomy friend.

"Really?", he looked at Mai who just had an irritated look on her face.

"I tried to meet with him while he was getting ready for his coronation. She was already in the room talking to him about when they would reveal their secret to everyone now that the war was over. Then they started making out and I just had to get out of there.", Mai looked down to her feet, "I betrayed Azula for him at Boiling Rock just to end up tossed aside when he chose to be with that water bender."

Aang gave her a sympathetic look. Mai had found out about their relationship the same way he had so he knew the kind of pain she was going through. Just like him, she was suffering from a broken heart as well.

"I understand how you feel. When I found out…I just wanted to fall apart. I felt this split in my chest and it hurt a lot and after I took care of Ozai I knew that I needed to get away. Otherwise, the pain wouldn't stop.", he said, "Even now when I think about them, I still feel it."

"I wanted to leave the fire nation as soon as I could so when Ty suggested I go with her to Kyoshi Island, I didn't even think about it for a second. I needed to get away.", Mai responded.

"I had to wait to recover from my injuries before I left. It wasn't easy especially considering I had to have my healing sessions with Katara. But once I finally left, I started to feel better."

"That must have been hard to deal with. Knowing that the girl you love was in a relationship with Zuko and kept it from you."

"She only hid it because she knew that I would be hurt, which she was definitely right about.", Aang said with a sad smile. Mai nodded.

The three of them were quiet for a few seconds until Ty Lee spoke up.

"I got an idea!", Mai and Aang both turned to her, "Since you guys have been going through the same thing then why not date each other?"

"huh?", Mai and Aang questioned her at the same time.

"Both of you guys have had your hearts broken, maybe you can help each other out. If you two date then maybe you can get over Katara and Zuko.", Ty suggested.

Aang and Mai turned to each other with raised eyebrows and then turned back to Ty Lee.

"No.", they both said in unison.

"Oh, come on! You guys barely thought about it.", Ty Lee responded.

"There is no way that Aang and I are compatible with each other. He isn't my type, he's just too…energetic and happy for my tastes.", Mai pointed out.

"And Mai is just too gloomy for me.", Aang turned to Mai, "No offense."

"None taken.", she assured him with a smile. The two of them knew they were the opposite of what the other wanted. Ty Lee's suggestion came with good intentions, but it wasn't a great idea. Aang wasn't Zuko and Mai wasn't Katara, the two of them dating could never work and they both knew that.

The air bender then let out a yawn. "Well it's been great seeing you two, but I need to get some sleep. I'll see you guys around later."

"Sure thing Aang. Hope you sleep well.", Ty Lee said. Mai and her waved him off as he went inside the house. As he laid into his bed, the air bender hoped that his friends would arrive by the time he woke up.

"Master Katara."

The water bender turned to see a servant coming up to her with a scroll, "Yes?"

"These scrolls came for you just now. It contains the latest information that we have concerning the Avatar's whereabouts.", said the servant. Katara took the scroll and thanked the servant. She took the scroll with her to her bedroom to read in private. She hoped that the latest information on Aang could give her an idea of where to go and look for him. Once she reached her room, she closed the door and sat on her bed as she unraveled the scroll and started reading.

So far what was written wasn't different from before. It would just say where Aang made his stops and what he did to help others. It wasn't anything new to her until she came upon his time in Lu Rane village. From what others had heard, Aang had saved a girl from a pervert that had attacked her. The water bender couldn't help but smile.

'Leave it to Aang to be a hero. Wait a minute-..', She started reading about how Aang decided to teach the girl how to water bend. 'Since when does teaching some girl he just met how to water bend become an essential part in "fulfilling" his avatar duties.'. She read on.

'So from what people in the village could tell, he and this "Kano" girl got really close with each other within less than a week.', Katara's hand started to grip tighter on the scroll. 'He leaves us without saying anything and is just flirting with girls now? Now he's getting chummy with a different girl that just so happens to be a water bender. IS HE TRYING TO REPLACE ME?!'. She threw the scroll across the room. Just what was Aang really doing on his travels? Were the reasons that he left for leaving in his letter even true? Again, why did he leave without saying anything to the gang?

'Why am I getting so angry? Aang has a kind soul, him teaching this girl how to water bend shouldn't bother me. I shouldn't take everything said in this scroll seriously either. The information might not be entirely accurate, maybe he isn't that close with her at all and it was just a misunderstanding. But why does it bother me so much?', she thought to herself. She shook her head to clear her mind and picked the scroll up from the floor. There was still more written in it.

'Apparently his last stop was in…Omashu. He must have gone to see king Bumi. He apparently stayed for a week until he took off again on Appa.'. There was nothing left in the scroll for her to read, that was all the information they had on Aang for now. Katara knew she didn't want to keep waiting on new information and decided then on what her next action would be. She would go to Omashu herself and ask Bumi where Aang went and wherever else he would go. If anyone knew, it had to be the air bender's childhood best friend. Nothing would stop her from finding Aang.

Aang had woken up from his slumber and was at the table eating food that was provided to him thanks to the villagers. He was wondering how much longer it would take for his friends to arrive until he heard Appa grunting from outside and then heard three different but familiar voices.

"MOMO! APPA!"

'They're here!, he ran outside to see Sokka, Toph, and Suki hugging the flying bison and lemur. Toph was the first to sense his presence.

"TWINKLE-TOES!". Sokka and Suki turned away from Appa and looked at the air bender with elation. The three of them ran to him and tackled him to the ground. Aang used his air bending to get them off the ground and the four friends came together for a group hug.

"It's great to see you again buddy. Looks like you've gotten taller and gained some muscles since we've seen you.", Sokka said.

"It's been too long.", Toph spoke.

"We missed you so much Aang.", finally Suki said.

"I missed all of you guys too.", after what seemed like a minute they broke off the hug, "You guys must be starving."

"You know me Aang, I'm always hungry.", Sokka replied. They all followed Aang back into the house to where the food was on the table. The water tribe warrior and the blind earth bender ran straight to the food and started gobbling whatever they could. Suki stood next Aang and put her hand on his shoulder.

"So how have you been feeling since…well you know?", she asked.

"I've been feeling…better since I left.", he tried to assure her with a smile. The Kyoshi warrior didn't seem too convinced though. Then an idea came to her.

"Let's do a bonfire tonight at the beach. We'll catch up on everything since we're still tired from our trip on the boat.", she suggested.

"Sounds like a good idea. You guys look like you can use some rest right now anyway. We got a lot of time to spend together.", Aang replied.

Later on, the group sat around the bonfire at the beach. Everyone was fully rested, and their hunger was satisfied except for Sokka. He was still eating snacks. Toph was telling the story of how Sokka got stuck in another hole like before but wasn't found until dinner time.

"Suki was the only one that noticed that he was missing for so long.", Toph said.

"Imagine how I felt finding my boyfriend stuck in a hole headfirst with his butt sticking out. When I ran back to get Toph, I couldn't stop laughing and when I finally brought her she wouldn't stop laughing for like five minutes before taking him out of it.", Suki said laughing.

"Sokka, how do you keep getting yourself into situations like that? Aunt Wu was right about you.", the air bender questioned as he wiped a tear from his eye from laughing.

"I refuse to believe that fake fortune teller was right about me! These things just happen to me.", Sokka replied as he tossed a grape into his mouth.

"If you say so", Aang chuckled. It felt great being able to talk to his friends like before, he missed the time they spent together.

"I'm glad you agreed to hanging out Aang. We've missed you a lot since you left.", Sokka stated and then added, "we aren't the only ones that miss you though."

Aang already knew where this was going. Toph and Suki were quiet and waited for the water tribe warrior to continue.

"I know I already told you in my letters but Katara really misses you. She hasn't been the same since she found your letter in your room."

"What do you mean?" Aang asked.

"We should start from the beginning. After she found your letter, Katara ran to us crying and screaming at us that you were gone. She couldn't understand why you would just leave us without saying anything.", Suki spoke up.

"I didn't expect her to take the news well but not as badly as she did. She started to worry about what would happen to you without us and Toph had to reassure her that you could take care of yourself. Even then she wouldn't stop crying until Zuko calmed her down and said he would ask June to bring you back.", Sokka remarked.

"It was a good thing we got to see you off before you left. That letter you wrote didn't explain enough why you had leave like you did.", Toph remarked. Sokka and Suki agreed, had they found out about his decision to leave like Katara did then even they would be extremely upset.

Aang put his hand on his forehead and felt a wave of guilt. He knew Katara would be upset but he didn't expect her to melt down like that because of him. Then Toph spoke up.

"You were lucky that you met June before she could take the job. Zuko said that she told him that you saved her life apparently."

"I just saved her from some bandits and let her and Nyla stay with me, Appa, and Momo at our camp. When I figured out why Zuko had summoned her and told her why I left, she said she wouldn't take the job since she owed me. June is really nice when you get to know her.", the air bender recounted his meeting with the bounty hunter and then remembered the kiss. Suki noticed a small blush on his face and became curious.

"Did something else happen between you too?", the Kyoshi warrior asked with a smirk. There was no point in lying since Toph would be able to tell.

"She…well-..before she went on her way...June… kissed me.", he could barely say it. His fingers subconsciously went to his lips, making it obvious to the others where exactly the bounty hunter kissed him.

"WHOA! She kissed you?!", Sokka spit out a grape. Toph smirked in approval and Suki had a surprised look on her face.

Aang nodded. "When she kissed me, she put her tongue in my mouth…I didn't even know that was a thing to do when you're kissing someone.". Neither Suki, Sokka, or Toph could control their reaction to this new information they had learned.

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!", the blind earth bender couldn't contain herself, "You didn't know that was a thing! You really were raised by monks, twinkle-toes even I knew that was a thing. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!". Suki and Sokka still kept on laughing along with Toph, leaving the air bender feeling more embarrassed than before.

"why did she kiss you?", Suki asked after they stopped laughing.

"She said it was to help me get over Katara and that there were other girls out there for me and that I shouldn't be too hung up on Katara.", Aang answered.

"So do you think you're ready to come back?", Sokka questioned him with a serious look.

"No.", Aang didn't wait to think about his answer. It may have been months since he had seen Katara, but he still wasn't ready.

"What do you mean "no"? It's already been almost four months since you left. Just how long do you plan on avoiding her?", Sokka asked with irritation in his voice. His sister had barely smiled since Aang left. Just how much time did he need before he would come back?

"I don't know…", the air bender looked away from him.

"Aang, I know you love my sister and I understand that you're hurt but you can't keep avoiding her like she's a plague.",

"It isn't that simple for me Sokka.", Aang insisted.

"How can it not be simple? You need to accept that Katara and Zuko are together and move on."

"Just how am I supposed to do that?! I can't turn off my feelings for her now that she's with Zuko, if I could that then don't you think I would have done that by now?!", the air bender stood up in anger, "Love doesn't work that way. I wish it did, but it doesn't!"

"We understand that Aang, but you can't keep doing this forever", Suki spoke up.

"What would you have me do Suki?", Aang asked.

"Maybe you need to talk to her about it.", Sokka suggested

"Talk to her about it? How do you expect me to do that? 'Hey Katara, lets talk about how much I love you even though you're dating Zuko. If you didn't feel the same way I felt about you then why did you kiss me back on the day of the invasion? Remember how when I talked to you about it and you just said you were "confused"? Only to know now that you were just lying to me since you were already in a secret relationship with Zuko at that point.'", Aang stopped to take a breath. He needed to calm down.

"Hold up.", Sokka held his hands up in a questioning motion, "you guys kissed the day we were invading the fire nation?"

"I wasn't sure that I was going to come back so I kissed her before I flew off from the submarine. She didn't pull away from me, she kissed me back. We didn't talk about it for a while until I brought it up during the Ember nights play.", Aang answered with a calm tone.

"And she said she was confused?", the Kyoshi warrior asked.

"Yeah and for some stupid reason I thought that by maybe kissing her like I did before then it would help, but she pulled away, got mad at me and went back to watch the play. It wasn't the best idea I ever had.", the air bender confessed.

"And finding out the way you did must have really hurt.", Toph spoke up again.

"It did.", he quietly responded.

"Then why not try to break them up? You could have just tried that instead of leaving all of us because of sugar queen.", Toph probed.

"I could never do that Toph. As much as I love Katara, I could never manipulate her into breaking up with Zuko for me. It would be selfish of me to hurt them like that. I know that leaving was just me running away again but there wasn't any other option for me. It was hard for me just staying there."

Toph figured that she couldn't argue with that. She knew Aang was too good of a person to pull off something like breaking up Katara and Zuko. She couldn't convince him otherwise. The air bender then turned back to Sokka.

"Please understand Sokka…I never intended to hurt Katara the way that I did. I could have handled the way I left better but I just needed to get out. I already hate myself for making you lie to your sister, but even now it still hurts when I think about her and Zuko. I tried to listen to June's advice when I met Kano in Lu Rane village."

"Who is Kano?", Sokka asked.

"She's a water bender that I met. She was a novice at bending, so I taught her some water bending moves during the short time I was there, and we became close friends. The night before we left for Omashu, I let her borrow some scrolls that I had so she could still train and then she kissed me.", Aang responded with his face blushing again.

"She used her tongue on you too?", Toph teased.

"Well no…but I did.", the air bender admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from his friends. They started laughing at him again.

"Aang you really are something else.", Sokka finally said after laughing.

"And it had to be another water bender too. Maybe twinkle-toes has a type.", Toph pointed out.

"So novice water bender that you just decide to help after just meeting her in one day. Did her family happen to come from the South pole too?" Sokka jokingly asked.

"Actually Sokka, her family did come from the south pole.", Aang replied in a matter-of-fact tone. The water warrior was only kidding when he asked and was surprised at the coincidence. Neither could Suki or Toph believe it.

"Wait…so is she older than you too?", Suki asked. Even though technically Aang was 113 years old.

"She's fifteen years old."

His friends just gaped at him. Just what are the odds that he would find someone that was like Katara at an earth kingdom village? Maybe Aang really did have a type.

"It wouldn't have worked out between us anyway.", Aang spoke.

"Why not?", Sokka asked.

"Because she just reminded me too much of Katara. If I started dating Kano then I would just be replacing Katara with her and I couldn't do that to Kano. Plus, Kano was still seeing me as the Avatar and not Aang. I can't be with someone that wants to be with me just because I'm the Avatar.", the air bender explained.

They knew that he had a point. All four of them were quiet for almost a minute until Aang sighed.

"It's like I said before, me being away from Katara is still the best thing for me and her."

"With how she's been acting, I can't agree with you. I know you think this is the best solution but Katara is miserable without you."

"If I come back then I'll be miserable. Before I left, just being around her hurt too much. It was hard for me to pretend that everything was alright between us. I can't go back to that Sokka…I just can't.", Aang spoke with tears in his eyes.

It pained Suki to see Aang like this. It wasn't his fault that he fell in love with a girl that didn't love him back. These sorts of things just happened; Suki knew that for a fact. When she met Sokka, she didn't expect to fall in love with him either and now couldn't imagine her life without him. Aang already had the weight of the world resting on his shoulders as the Avatar and having his heart broken made things just difficult for him now. The Kyoshi warrior realized she couldn't take this anymore, so she stood up from her spot next to Sokka and walked up to the air bender. She then pulled him towards her and wrapped her arms around him.

"Suki…", Aang tried to speak but she interrupted him.

"Just let it out Aang. Don't hold it all in.", Suki implored him. With that, Aang rested his head on the crook of her neck and shoulder and let out a sob. She held him tighter and started rubbing his back. He finally wrapped his arms around her and let his tears flow. Sokka and Toph sat still and didn't say anything as the air bender cried. As much as Sokka hated seeing his sister sad, he hated seeing his brother like this as well. Aang genuinely loved Katara and still did. It wasn't fair of Sokka to ask him to come back just to see the girl he loved with another guy. Even if Katara was suffering, so was Aang.

Suki pulled her head back but still had her arms around him.

"I know you're hurting Aang and have been for a while now. It may seem like it won't ever go away but I assure you…it will. So take all the time that you need and remember that we'll always be here for you. Even if we are miles away, the three of us will help you in any way that we can.", she turned to Sokka and Toph, "Isn't that right you guys?"

Both of them stood up and put their arms around the two of them.

"That's right. Just promise that we'll still see you Aang. Sweetness and Sparky will never find out about us hanging out, I promise you that.", Toph finally spoke.

"I'm sorry for trying to force you to come back. Take the time that you need and come back to us when you're ready.", comforted Sokka.

"Thank you guys. You guys are my family and always will be. I'm really sorry for making you deceive your sister like this Sokka.", Aang finally said.

"Don't worry about it.", the water tribe warrior assured him as they all broke off from each other, "There is just something I want to know."

"What is it?", inquired Aang as he wiped away his tears.

"Just how hot is this Kano chick?"

Suki smacked her boyfriend upside his head, "Seriously?!"

"It's just a question!", Sokka replied.

"You're an idiot.", Toph groaned.

Aang laughed. Only Sokka would ask a question like that after such an emotional moment. It didn't bother him, he was just happy to be with his friends again.


	7. chapter 7

Katara arrived at Omashu. She had decided that she couldn't wait longer for any update on Aang's whereabouts, so she sailed off to confront king Bumi. The trip took less than a week. Zuko was busy with his duties so she had left him a message telling him that she was going off to visit some friends in the earth kingdom. Katara knew better than to just tell him that she was trying to get information from Bumi. There was no way Zuko would have let her leave because of Aang.

Katara didn't like having to lie to her boyfriend but she had no choice. She needed to find her best friend and Bumi was her best chance. After spending almost a year with him every day, she grown used to having Aang by her side. Now with him gone, she wasn't as happy as she used to be. Before she met him, she was just a novice water bender who had no one to teach her how to bend and had to step up as a maternal figure for her family after her mother's death. She wasn't sure that she'd ever leave the south pole until she and Sokka freed Aang from his frozen prison. He reminded her what it was like to have fun. Every day that she spent with him was a new adventure. With him gone from her life again, it was like he took a part of her with him.

Katara met with the guards at the gate and told them that she had business to speak of with their king. Since the war ended, the world had heard the story of how team avatar defeated Ozai and stop the war. With that in mind, the guards had no problem with letting her meet with Bumi. They escorted her to the palace and after a few minutes, King Bumi was ready to meet with her.

As soon as Bumi heard that Katara had come to meet him, he already knew it was because of Aang. Once he sat down on his throne, he motioned to his guards to let her in.

"Ah, master Katara. It is good to see you again.", he greeted her.

"As always it is a pleasure to see you again King Bumi", Katara bowed.

"Just Bumi is fine. So what can I do for you? I'm sure that this isn't really a social visit you're making.", Bumi replied.

'Straight to the point. Bumi might be crazy but he isn't a fool.', Katara thought to herself.

"Well, a couple weeks after the war ended Aang left us to fulfill his avatar duties across the world. He never said anything about it to any of us and when I found out…he was already gone. He left a letter saying why he left and how he didn't want to be found but it's been months since I've seen him. I heard that he recently came here so I was hoping that you could help me find him.", she explained.

"You said it yourself that he doesn't want to be found so why bother looking for him?", Bumi asked.

"I believe there is something he isn't telling us, and it could be the real reason as to why he left."

'Yes, and the reason is quite literally YOU.', he thought to himself before speaking. "Well if it makes you feel better, he was quite fine when he was visiting. He stuck around for a week and we spent the whole time together having fun like we used before the war started."

"Has he said anything to you about why he chose to just travel by himself?", Katara questioned.

'I suppose I could tell her the truth…but it wouldn't be right. This is something she has to learn from Aang.'. "He just needs to have time to himself. Besides, he isn't really traveling by himself if he has Momo and Appa with him."

"Everyone keeps saying that he needs time to himself but what for?", Katara was getting tired of everyone saying that. She knew well that Aang was no introvert.

"Considering he woke up after a hundred years, found out he was the last air bender, mastered the other three elements, and stopped the war within less than a year…I'm sure he just needs time to adjust to himself.", Bumi hoped that this explanation would suffice.

"You and I both know that Aang doesn't have to force himself to be alone for that. He knows that we would want to be there for him."

"True but it is what he wants. Not much else we can do about it but respect his wishes.", Bumi then stood up from his throne, "You must be hungry from your trip, let's have some lunch."

The water bender complied and walked with him to the dining area. They sat across from each other at the table and starting eating.

"So what did you and Aang do together while he was here?", Katara wondered.

"Oh we did some sliding down the delivery system, did some earth bending sparring, pulled pranks on the citizens, guards, the cabbage merchant, and each other. Just like we used to a hundred years ago.", He thought to himself before speaking, 'Should I bring it up? Hmm, I'm curious to see how she'll react to this.'.

"Sounds like you two had a lot of fun together.", Katara replied with a bitter tone. It didn't go unnoticed.

"That we did. If only you saw his face when he woke up with ten women from the Omashu brothel I had sent into his chambers."

Katara spit her drink. "You sent prostitutes to him?!"

"Yes, I did. Figured that I treat him to something nice.", Bumi cackled. He recalled how his friend looked once he evaded the women.

"Why would you do that?!", she couldn't believe that Bumi would do such a thing but then again…he was crazy.

"Why not? After all that he's done for the world, I would say that he deserves an appropriate service for his deeds. And as far as I know, he doesn't have a girlfriend, so it isn't like he had anything to hold him back."

"He shouldn't be doing such things to begin with.", Katara slammed her hands on the table. She turned her head. There was something she had to know. "D-d-d-did he…he do it?"

"Do what?", Bumi questioned.

"Have s-sex with the w-w-women?", Katara stuttered as she turned back to him. She twirled her hair with her fingers anticipating Bumi's answer.

"Heh…no he didn't. He ran out of the room before the women had their way with him."

Katara let out a sigh of relief. She was glad to hear that Aang didn't do anything with the sex workers. She didn't know why but she just was. After processing what Bumi just said, it seemed to her that Aang was doing just fine while she was miserable and missed him.

'If he can take some time to have fun with Bumi then why hasn't he come back to me?'. She could only hope now that Bumi knew where Aang was at the moment.

"Do you know where he is right now?", she finally asked.

"What makes you think I would know that?"

"You're his best friend. I'm sure that he would have told you something."

Bumi made sure to choose his words correctly before speaking. "He might have gone south from what I remember. My memory has been foggy lately."

Katara narrowed her eyes. "I don't believe that for a second. You know exactly where he went."

'She is quite perceptive.'. "Believe what you want.", he replied with a smirk.

She pushed back her chair as she stood up, "Tell me where he is!"

"And if I don't?"

Katara opened her water pouch and bent the water out, "I'll make you tell me."

With that, she bent the water she had into several sharp icicles and aimed them at Bumi. His guards started to move but their king put his hand up to stop them. Bumi wasn't fazed by her threat in the slightest.

"You would threaten the king of Omashu?", he asked.

"If it means I'll be able to find Aang then yes! I would threaten the king.", Katara replied with a determined look in her eyes.

"If Aang wanted you to find him then you would have already. Besides, he is a busy man with work to do."

"IF HE CAN MAKE TIME FOR YOU THEN HE SHOULD DO THE SAME FOR ME!", Katara hollered.

"He made time for me because I hadn't seen him for a hundred years. With the war over, there was no better time."

"Just tell me where he is! I won't hesitate to beat the answer out of you.", she demanded.

"Attack me and you will start another war! You and I both know that is the last thing the Avatar needs to deal with after just ending the last war. How do you think he would feel knowing you attacked his oldest friend?", Bumi responded. 'Just how far is this girl willing to go for you Aang?'.

Katara felt her resolve begin to waver. As much as she wanted to find Aang, she didn't want to cause any trouble for him. Plus, she knew that Aang wouldn't forgive her for attacking his friend. She bent the water back into her pouch. Her arms slouched down to her sides as she kept her eyes on Bumi.

"Please Bumi…I need to see him. I just have to.", Katara begged, "He just left without saying anything to me and…I-I miss him so much."

Bumi felt sorry for her. He wished that he could tell her, but he knew that Aang trusted him not to reveal his location.

"I'm sorry young lady, but I will not."

Katara walked away from the table and headed towards the door. She stopped right in front of the door and spoke again.

"Just tell me this then. Is he avoiding the rest of us…or is he avoiding just me?"

"I know you're tired of hearing this but give him time Katara. We both know Aang well enough to know that he will come around.", he avoided answering her question. She didn't say anything else as she opened the door and left. She ran out of Omashu as quickly as she could.

Once she was a mile away from the city, she looked around to see if there was anyone around and found no one nearby. Katara let the tears she held back flow now as she fell to her knees. Bumi may have avoided answering her question but now she was certain. Aang was avoiding her. She suspected that Aang left because of her but now that suspicion became fact. Aang left her and there was nothing she could do but cry at the realization.

Meanwhile, Aang was still on Kyoshi Island with his friends. Tonight was going to be the last night that they spent together. He, Appa, and Momo were going to travel to the northern water tribe while Sokka, Suki, and Toph sailed back to the fire nation.

They all sat together around the same bonfire as before with the other Kyoshi warriors except Ty Lee who had left with Mai to visit her family. Aang had asked Suki to bring the warriors to the bonfire so that he could give them all a surprise.

"Alright Aang, the girls are here. So what did you want to show us?", Suki spoke up.

"There is someone special that I think you all will be excited to meet. After all that you girls have done traveling all over the world and helping others, it's the least that I can do.", he responded.

"Trust me babe, you're going to love this.", Sokka assured Suki. Aang already told him and Toph earlier what he had planned for the Kyoshi warriors.

Aang stood up from where he sat in front of the fire and walked a few steps away from the bonfire.

He turned back to the group, closed his eyes and took a breath. When his eyes opened, they were glowing along with his tattoo. The wind started to blow fast and Aang was engulfed in a tornado. The Tornado dispersed quickly and revealed Avatar Kyoshi standing in Aang's place.

The Kyoshi warriors couldn't believe it. The Avatar that they aspired to be like was right in front of them. The girls lined up horizontally and kneeled down in front of her. As captain, Suki was the first to speak.

"Avatar Kyoshi, it is an honor for us to meet you. The teachings that you have passed down are still with us even today."

"Even after my death, I still made sure to watch over everyone in the village. All of you and the warriors before you have made me proud. Now stand up, you don't need to bow down to me.", Avatar Kyoshi spoke. They listened and stood on their feet.

"I have watched over you and spoken with Aang about all that you've done. Letting me take over so that I can meet you all was his idea. I'm afraid I can't stay long but if you have any questions then I will answer them to the best of my abilities."

The Kyoshi warriors were quick to ask their questions. Some personal and some were about fighting. After a few minutes Kyoshi had managed to answer every question that she could and even showed them some fighting stances.

"Thank you for taking the time to grace us with your presence Avatar Kyoshi.", said Suki.

"It was my pleasure. Again, you have all made me proud, especially you Suki.", Kyoshi responded with a smile.

"Oh I've only just did what was expected from me", Suki blushed.

"Nonsense. I'm aware of the work you did to help Aang defeat the fire nation. You have earned your title as captain of the Kyoshi warriors. The team is in good hands with you as their leader. Do continue to help Aang however you can."

"Always. The girls and I will do our best to honor your legacy.", Suki and her team bowed.

"Good.", Kyoshi dropped her smile and turned to Sokka, "You come here!".

Before Sokka could move, she used her air bending to pull him towards her. When he was close enough, Kyoshi grabbed his shirt collar and raised him up in the air.

"WHOA! What's the big ide—", he tried to speak but was interrupted.

"I'm only going to say this once to you. All the Kyoshi warriors are like my daughters, so remember this young man…if you hurt Suki, I will not hesitate to take over Aang's body and castrate you myself. Do I make myself clear?"

Sokka nodded his head. He was too scared to say anything while Toph and the Kyoshi warriors laughed at him.

"Man! Lady you are one hell of an Avatar.", Toph said after wiping a tear from her eye. Kyoshi dropped Sokka and turned to her.

"I've seen what you could do. You used your disability to your advantage and became an amazing earth bender. To create even metal bending at such a young age. I look forward to seeing what you do next.", Kyoshi stated with another smile.

"I won't disappoint you Kyoshi. I am the world's greatest earth bender after all.", Toph smirked. She tried not to show it but it meant a lot to Toph that she impressed Kyoshi.

"Such confidence, I like that.", Kyoshi then turned back to the warriors, "It is time for me to go my daughters."

"Um before you go…can we hug you?", Suki asked.

Kyoshi spread her arms, "Of course you can."

They all came together and hugged the Avatar.

"It was a pleasure to meet you girls. Keep making me proud.". The wind started to blow again and engulfed Kyoshi and the girls. Once it dissipated, Aang had returned and in the arms of the Kyoshi warriors.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH AANG!", Suki spoke, and the other girls expressed their thanks as well.

"No problem. You all deserve it after all you've done.", Aang replied. The group hug was then broken off.

"Did she have to threaten me like that?", Sokka wondered as he stood up from the ground.

Suki and Aang looked to each other and turned back to him.

"Yup!", they both said in unison.

"Someone has to keep you in line Snoozles.", Toph spoke up and everyone but Sokka laughed.

They all sat around the bonfire again and eventually went back to their cabin to sleep. They all had a journey to make the next day and would need any rest that they could get.

The next morning, they were all packed and ready to go. Aang jumped off Appa's saddle to say his final goodbye to his friends.

"It was good seeing you all again.", Aang spoke as he met up with his friends.

"It sure was. Don't think this is the last time though, I expect to see you again soon Twinkle-toes.", Toph replied and punched his shoulder. Aang rubbed the spot she hit, he could never get used to how hard Toph hit him.

"Don't worry. This won't be the last time we see each other.", he assured her.

"I hope you're able to work out your feelings Aang. In fact, I'm sure you will, you beat Ozai your way so I'm sure you'll be able to get over your feelings.", Toph hugged Aang and he returned the embrace.

"Thank you Toph. It means a lot to me.", they broke the hug and Toph stepped back as Suki walked up to Aang and embraced him in her arms as well.

"I can't thank you enough for last night. It means a lot to me and the Kyoshi warriors what you did for us.", she spoke as she pulled her head back.

"Don't worry about it. I just thought I could do something special for you after all you've done to help me.", he replied. Suki put her hand on his cheek before speaking again.

"Now remember what I've told you. Take as much time as you need to, and if you ever need us then we'll come as soon as possible. You will never have to worry about being alone".

Aang nodded his head and thanked her. Suki kissed his cheek before breaking off the hug. Then Sokka came up from behind Suki.

"Now I expect a letter from you as soon as you land at the North pole young man.", Sokka spoke with his "Wang Fire" accent.

"Sure thing Sokka", Aang chuckled.

"So what exactly are you going to do there?", Sokka wondered.

"Well it's been a while since we came to the northern water tribe and it's a good place to learn how to heal myself with water bending. I could also use it to heal others that will need help as well."

"Knowing how reckless you can be sometimes…yeah you'll definitely need those healing abilities."

"You guys have any plans at the fire nation?", the air bender asked.

"Just the usual. Helping Zuko smooth relations with the water tribes and earth kingdom. Nothing too major."

"Have fun with that."

"Oh yeah…I'll definitely have fun doing political work.", Sokka replied with a flat tone.

"I'll miss you guys"

"We'll miss you too buddy"

The two friends hugged it out. Toph and Suki got in and made it into a group hug. No one said anything until a sniff was heard. Toph, Suki, and Sokka turned to see Aang with tears in his eyes.

"Aw Aang don't cry…W-we'll see you again.", Suki stuttered as she started to cry as well.

"But it's my fault things are like this. If I could have just stayed then we wouldn't have to meet up like this.", he replied.

"Look at me Aang…", he turned to Sokka, "Do not blame yourself for this. If you had stayed then you would have been suffering. You were only doing what was best for yourself and Katara. The situation we're in won't be forever. Things will work out eventually."

"N-n-now quit being a s-s-sissy al-ready…", Toph demanded. Her bangs covered her eyes, but the others could see tears dripping down.

"Don't beat yourself up over this Aang. We'll get through this eventually. We l-love you-u-u no matter…what.", Suki did her best to be assuring but she couldn't stop crying.

The four of them finally let their tears out together. No one but Appa and Momo saw them as they cried together. After what felt like an hour for them, they let go of each other. It was time for Aang to go. He jumped on to Appa's head and took the reins. He wiped his tears as he looked back at his friends who were doing the same.

"As soon as I land at the north pole, I'll send you a letter."

"Until next time little brother", Sokka bid with a sad smile.

"Don't go slacking off on your training either. You're not an earth bending master yet.", said Toph as she crossed her arms.

"Stay safe out there Aang.", Suki finally said.

Aang nodded in response and turned down to Appa. "Yip Yip"

With that, Appa soared into the air and flew in the north direction. Aang looked down to his friends and waved. They waved back at him until they couldn't see Appa anymore.

Momo jumped on to Aang's shoulder. After seeing his friend crying with the others, all the lemur wanted to do was help comfort Aang.

"Alright you two…", he spoke to his furry friends, "Let's get to the north pole!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to leave a review or comment if you like the story so far


	8. chapter 8

Two months passed since Katara came back from Omashu. When she came back Zuko had planned on confronting her for lying about where she went. He didn’t believe what she had said in the note she left behind for him. The only earth kingdom friends that Katara could have that Zuko could think of was Toph, Haru, and the freedom fighters. Katara wasn’t close with the freedom fighters nor was she that close with Haru. Zuko would have believed her if she said she was going to see Toph, but she didn’t. 

Just when he was ready to yell at her for her dishonesty he stopped. As Katara walked, she kept her eyes on the ground, her shoulders slouched, and strands of her hair were sticking out like she hadn’t combed her hair for days.

“Katara?” he called out to her. Finally, she looked up from the floor and Zuko saw her eyes. Katara looked like she hadn’t slept in days. Her eyes were red as if she had just cried earlier and she also had bags under her eyes. The water bender looked terrible.

“What’s wrong Katara?” Zuko asked.

“Nothing” murmured Katara.

“Don’t lie to me. You and I both know that you weren’t really visiting friends in the earth kingdom. What were you actually doing?”

Katara really didn’t have the energy to talk to Zuko but she couldn’t avoid this.

“I went to Omashu to see King Bumi. I heard that Aang went to visit him, so I went there to get answers. Bumi wouldn’t tell me where Aang went.”

She recounted everything that happened. It seemed that Zuko’s suspicion was right, Aang did leave because of them. He hugged her to make her feel better, but it didn’t seem to do much for her. 

Since then Katara had been depressed. It killed her knowing that Aang left to get away from her. She started to spend a lot more time in her room insisting that she was tired which she was, but she was tired almost all the time. When she slept she would have nightmares of Aang leaving her again and again. The time she spent practicing her water bending had decreased as it kept reminding her of Aang.

Sokka, Suki, and Toph noticed that there was something off about Katara when they returned. To them, she wasn’t as talkative as much as she did before and rarely had a genuine smile on her face. Sokka had felt tempted to take her on a boat and sail to the north pole where Aang was but knew that it wouldn’t be a good idea.

They all did their best to be there for Katara. Suki felt guilty about keeping Aang’s secret, she wanted to help the water bender but didn’t know how to other than telling her where he was. Toph had tried to get a rise out of Katara so that she would talk more but it didn’t work. Sokka had suggested that he could inform Aang of Katara’s condition but Suki and Toph insisted that he shouldn’t. They didn’t want Aang to feel more guilty for leaving.

Zuko reflected back on his relationship with Katara. After confronting Yon Rha, they had become close and he felt that he finally met someone that understood him. Katara and him both lost their mothers because of the fire nation. He wouldn’t deny that he found her attractive either. Plus, Katara had admitted that she did find him attractive after she forgave him but was hesitant to be with him because she knew how Aang felt about her. That was how their secret meet ups started.

Zuko would be lying if he said he didn’t feel guilty about hiding this from the others, especially Aang. He knew how the air bender felt about Katara and they were dating behind his back because they knew how hurt he would be. It would also have distracted him from preparing for his battle with the fire lord.

When they didn’t have to hide their relationship anymore, things had become complicated. Katara worried what Aang’s reaction would be and were surprised with how well he seemed to take the news. At first it felt like they worried over nothing until Katara found Aang’s room empty the next morning. Had it not been for the letter Aang left, they would have immediately assumed that he left because of their relationship. Zuko could tell that Katara tried to not let the air bender’s absence consume her but it was a fruitless endeavor. He understood that Katara and Aang were best friends, but he wondered if it was more than that. It was obvious that Aang had feelings for Katara. It would be understandable to worry about your best friend when they leave out of nowhere but for this long? 

Zuko started to suspect that Katara did indeed have feelings for Aang after all but just didn’t know it. The thought didn’t bother him like he thought it should. It led him to wonder about his own feelings for her.

‘ _Am I really in love with Katara?_ ’ he wondered. While he found her attractive, Zuko felt that Katara was too energetic for his liking. She always wanted to do things that were out of his comfort zone. When they spent time together before the war ended Katara would always want to talk about her feelings and philosophize about the world. It’s not that Zuko didn’t like talking about things but sometimes he felt that she talked to much. Then Katara would want to do activities like dancing, which Zuko wasn’t a fan of. He didn’t mind slow dancing, he didn’t like to do anything that was fancy, but that wasn’t what Katara wanted to do. She wanted to try dance routines like what she had done with Aang once but Zuko didn’t want to do it. It was because he didn’t want to get out of his comfort zone that he found himself arguing with Katara often.

He wouldn’t admit this to her, but he felt weird whenever they would kiss. It didn’t help that she wasn’t a good kisser in his opinion. She didn’t kiss him like Mai did.

Mai also didn’t expect him want to do things together, she was just content being by his side. Zuko never had to change who he was just for her sake since Mai loved him for who he was.

When Zuko started to compare both Katara and Mai, he realized how much he missed his ex-girlfriend. The same ex-girlfriend who risked her life so that he and Sokka could escape the boiling rock and what did he do in return for it? He chose to be with Katara while Mai rotted in prison. He wondered more and more if his feelings for Katara were not what he thought they were.

Zuko needed to talk to someone about how he felt. Luckily, his uncle Iroh had come to visit one day.

“Uncle, I need your help with something” Zuko stated as his uncle poured some Jasmine tea for the two of them.

“I’m always happy to help you dear nephew.” Iroh replied, “Is it fire lord business that you need help with?”

“No…it’s about my feelings for Katara.”

“Oh…”, Iroh gave Zuko his cup, “and what of your feelings?”

“I’m starting to think my feelings for her aren’t what I thought they would be”

“How so?” Iroh wondered as he took a sip of his tea.

“I mean…I don’t think I’m as attracted to her as I thought I was. Lately I’ve noticed that I’m not fond of our relationship. When I’m with Katara, all I think of is Mai.” 

“You miss Mai”

“I do Uncle.”

“When did you realize that?”

“It’s when I started to think Katara had feelings for Aang. Ever since he left, she hasn’t been the same. She doesn’t sleep much or smile much like she used to. When I started to believe that she did have feelings for Aang, I started thinking about how much it didn’t bother me.”

“So you’re not mad that your girlfriend has feelings for her friend?”

“I’m not.”

“Oh”

Zuko sipped his tea.

“I just don’t know why. If I’m not mad then what does that say about my feelings for Katara?”

“I would say that it means that your feelings for the girl aren’t in a romantic sense. Tell me what it is that you like about her.”

Zuko thought for a minute before answering.

“She’s a powerful water bender in my opinion but she’s also an extremely sweet person. Katara is so loving of others and always happy to help in any way that she can. She is headstrong in her beliefs and always willing to do the right thing. She’s the opposite of Azula.”

“Azula huh?”, Iroh raised an eyebrow, “Do you think that it may be possible that you wished your sister could be like Katara?”

“Hmm…I think so. Sometimes I would look at Katara and Sokka and wish that I could have the same sibling bond with Azula.” 

“Then I would say that you love Katara like a sister instead of a romantic partner. What you thought of as romantic feelings were really just sibling love. It’s probably why it does not bother you that Katara might love Aang because deep down you know they should be together.”

Zuko nodded.

“Katara and I just aren’t into the same things either. When I was with Mai I was very content and with Katara I’m not. It’s because of that I just miss Mai all the time.” 

“What I have noticed about you and Katara is that you’re both have bad tempers. I’m guessing because of that similarity that you two would fight a lot.” Iroh pointed out.

“Yeah we would. Katara just enjoys trying new things to get out of her comfort zone but I’m not. She’d keep pushing me to do the same, but we would just end up fighting about it. These days we don’t really do any fighting because she doesn’t want to do anything, and I hate seeing her like that. I can’t bring her out of this sadness…but maybe Aang can.” 

Iroh said nothing and drank his tea. A minute of silence passed between the two before his nephew spoke again.

“I have to break up with her. Katara needs Aang and I need Mai.”

“I couldn’t agree more. You both deserve to be with someone that makes you happy.”

“Thank you Uncle. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You never have to thank me Zuko. I’ll always choose to help my dear nephew in any way that I can” Iroh smiled. 

A week after that conversation with his uncle, Zuko couldn’t wait any longer to break up with Katara. He only kept putting it off because she was still distraught over the fact that Aang left her. Zuko hoped that she would eventually get better and then break up with her on good terms. But with Katara still depressed and he worried about what she would do when he told her how he felt.

‘ _I can’t put this off any longer! I have to do this for both her sake and mine._ ’ He thought to himself.

He walked to her bedroom and knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” called out a sad and tired voice from in the room.

‘ _Crap…this is going to tough._ ’ Zuko took a deep breath.

“Zuko here…I need to talk to you”

After a few seconds, the door was opened. From what Zuko saw, Katara didn’t look so great. She looked tired.

“Are you okay Katara?” Zuko asked.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine Zuko. I was just sleeping.” She responded.

“You’ve been doing that a lot lately now. You hardly come out of your room anymore. You can’t stay there all the time.”

“Did you come here just to give me a lecture?!” Katara snapped. Zuko put his hands up in defense and tried to defuse the situation.

“No! I just needed to talk to you about something.”

“What is it?” she sighed.

‘ _Here I go…_ ’

“I think that we sho—”

“KATARA!!” a male voiced screamed. They both turned to see Sokka running up to them.

“What do you want Sokka?” Katara questioned with an annoyed tone.

“It’s Toph! She was attacked by some fire benders. I think they were Ozai loyalists.”

“Oh no!” Zuko exclaimed. They all ran to the infirmary where Toph was laying on a bed with Suki by her side. From the looks of it Toph had a lot of bruises on her body and her feet were burnt. Katara immediately went to work on healing Toph as soon as she saw her. 

“What happened Toph?” Zuko asked.

“I was just practicing my metal bending when suddenly I hear an arrow coming at me from behind me. I tried to block it with a barrier, but it exploded on me and knocked me off my feet. The fire from the explosion burnt my feet and I couldn’t see anything.” Toph explained. 

“Sokka and I heard the explosion and saw her on the ground. There were three fire benders that were about to kill Toph until they saw us running towards them. They ran off before we could even attempt to fight them.” Suki stated.

“No one but fire benders still loyal to my father could have done this. I’ll order my guards to stay alert for any enemy combatants. It’s possible that they will try to attack again.” Zuko said and marched out of the infirmary.

“I need some more water. I’ll be right back Toph” Katara ran out of the room as well for a bowl of water. She decided to grab her water flask from her room first and then headed to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl of water.

As Katara approached the infirmary she heard Sokka and the girls talking.

“Maybe we should send him a letter. We could use his help” Suki suggested.

‘ _Send who a letter?_ The water bender thought to herself.

“Could we even send him a letter in fast enough time? We don’t know if or when those Ozai goonies will attack again.” Toph pointed out.

“Well I could try to have Hawky try to pick up Aang’s scent. We can’t send him a letter through normal means like we usually do.” Sokka finally said.

‘ _Aang? They know how to get in contact with Aang?_ ’ Before Katara realized it, she dropped the bowl of water.

**THUD!**

The three turned around to the source of the sound and found Katara standing at the doorway with her hands to her sides and the bowl of water that spilled on the ground.

“Oh no” Suki murmured. Sokka looked at Katara in shock and Toph just simply stared in her direction.

Sokka and Suki saw Katara’s surprised expression change to rage. She stomped her way into the room.

“You’ve been in contact with him all these months?! How could you keep this from me?” Katara demanded. 

“Katara you need to calm down” Sokka spoke up.

“CALM DOWN?! YOU LIED TO ME SOKKA! I’m your sister, how could you hide this from me?!”

“Please hear us out Katara. Right now isn’t the best time to discuss this…we have the Ozai loyalists to worry about.” Suki pleaded.

“You all knew where Aang was going all this time while I have been worried sick about him!”

Suki and Sokka just looked at each other. They knew there was no way of getting out of this situation. Sokka turned back to his sister.

“Look Kat—”

“How long did you actually keep this from me? Was everything he left in his letter even true at all?” Katara asked.

Sokka sighed before speaking. He couldn’t lie his way out of this.

“Since he left. He wasn’t lying about fulfilling his avatar duties but there was more to it than that.”

Katara was shaking.

“So you always knew from the beginning.”, tears started to flow down her cheeks, “This whole time you all could have told me where he went. Aang could have got hurt and I wouldn’t have known about it because you all lied to me.”

“Aang isn’t a fragile kid Katara. He can handle himself.” Toph finally spoke up. Katara ignored what she said because she had another question on her mind. She looked back at her brother.

“You said that there was more to what he was doing instead of just his avatar duties. That must mean he had another reason for leaving”

“Yes, but it isn’t our place to say it” Suki stated.

Katara threw her hands up in exasperation. Not even her own brother and friends would tell her.

“Then let me ask you the same thing I asked King Bumi. Is Aang avoiding me? Am I the reason he left?”

None of them answered her question. Sokka looked to the right, Suki looked down at her feet, and Toph turned her sightless eyes down to her lap.

“Don’t just say nothing. TELL ME!!” Katara cried.

“What is going on here?” Zuko questioned as he entered the room. He had heard yelling from down the hall and came as fast as he could to all of them.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on Zuko”, Katara spoke with venom in her voice, “My dear brother and friends have been keeping a secret from us”

“What secret?” Zuko wondered.

“Oh that they have been in contact with my Aang while I’ve been miserable without him.”

Zuko looked towards Sokka and the girls. “Is this true?”

“Aang needed to get away Zuko. There isn’t much more we can say about it. Please try to understand.” Toph spoke.

“Get away? From what?”

“They won’t say it, but it might as well be true. Aang left to get away from me” Katara brought her hands to her face. Sokka reached out for her.

“Katara just lis—”

**BOOM!!!**

The infirmary exploded and blasted them all against the wall. From where used to be a wall now crumbled down. A group of fire benders now stood where the wall collapsed and faced all of them.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Zuko demanded. He tried to stand up but couldn’t due to the impact from the explosion. He was in too much pain to stand. Katara got up on her knees and looked towards the others. Her brother was on the ground next to her.

“SOKKA!” she crawled to him as fast as she could, already forgetting that she was just mad at him. She then saw Suki and Toph next to him unconscious.

“Fire lord Zuko! Your reign ends today! We are here to take you and your friends out and reinstate Azula as the true Fire lord and bring out Phoenix King back to his rightful glory!” a fire bender standing in the center with the others spoke. It occurred to Zuko that he must have been the leader.

He still couldn’t get up but Katara could. She got up from her knees and stood wobbly.

“I’m not going to let you hurt my friends” she stated with determination in her voice.

“Don’t worry water bender. This will be over quickly” the leader spoke again. The fire benders punched a wave of fire at Katara, but an earth wall was erected up from the ground before the fire could touch her. The wall separated the enemy fire benders from the others. Katara turned to look towards Toph who was still unconscious. She then looked to Zuko.

They were both wondering the same thing.

‘ _Who made this wall?_ ’

They then heard noise coming from the other side of the wall. From what they could hear, it sounded like the enemy fire benders were fighting a losing battle but against who?

Just as the noise stopped, the wall had come down and that was when she saw him. After what was almost a year, he finally came back. After what felt like an eternity, Katara found her voice.

“Aang…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this latest chapter. The next chapter will show the confrontation between Aang and Katara so I hope your excited for that.


	9. chapter 9

**A week ago**

Aang was still staying at the North pole. Yugoda had taught him everything he needed to know in regard to healing. He wasn’t on the same level as Katara, but he was close enough which wasn’t too bad. Aang had been with the northern water tribe for almost two months now and didn’t have any plans on where he, Appa, and Momo would go to next.

The air bender never really had a plan on where they would go to. Sometimes he would just have Appa flying aimlessly until he had an idea on where he wanted to go. It seemed likely that they would do that again once it was time for them to leave the north pole. Until he was contacted by his past life, Avatar Roku.

Aang had been meditating in his room within the royal palace. It was a bit extravagant for his liking but Chief Arnook insisted for him to take the room. He was in deep meditation until he heard a voice calling out to him.

“Aang…”

He immediately stood up and turned to see where the voice had come from. There was no one else in his room except Momo, who was sleeping on Aang’s bed.

“Over here Aang”, the voice spoke again. Aang turned to the mirror in his room and saw Avatar Roku instead of his reflection.

“It’s great to see you again Roku!” Aang spoke. It had been a while since he last met his past life and he was happy to see him again.

Roku smiled, “It is good to see you again Avatar Aang, but I’m afraid the circumstances for this meeting isn’t well.”

“Is something wrong?”

“You may have ended the war, but there are still those who wish to go forward with Sozin’s agenda for the fire nation. Your friends are in danger.”

“Oh no.”, Aang had fought with Ozai loyalists during his travels. He didn’t have a problem handling them, but they were a pain for him to deal with it. Aang didn’t doubt that his friends could fight them but if Roku was contacting him then there was a reason for him to worry.

“You must hurry back to the fire nation, otherwise your friends will be killed.” Roku warned him. Aang didn’t think twice about leaving. He informed Chief Arnook, grabbed his belongings and Momo, and took off with Appa. He couldn’t afford to waste a second getting to the fire nation.

**Four days later**

Aang, Momo, and Appa were still in the sky flying towards the fire nation. The sky was dark with a full moon. Aang had been anxious to protect his friends but now was anxious about something else.

Katara.

He was finally going to see her again after almost a year since he left the fire nation. A part of him was happy while another part was worried. According to his what his friends told him on Kyoshi Island, she wasn’t the same person. He hated that his departure had made her cry, while he knew that Katara would be hurt he didn’t expect it to hurt her that bad. He hoped that she would eventually get better. At least with Zuko by her side then maybe she would eventually be okay. That was what Aang was thinking until he read a letter from Bumi.

Aang had made a stop at Ba Sing Se before flying all the way to the north pole to check if he had any mail and found one from King Bumi. In the letter Bumi had informed him of Katara’s visit to Omashu. Apparently she had heard that he visited and asked Bumi if he knew where Aang was, which at the time was Kyoshi Island. Aang couldn’t believe that Katara actually threatened to hurt Bumi.

_She is desperate Aang, she told me herself how much she misses you._

Aang read that sentence multiple times. Even after all these months, she still missed him.

_Katara asked if you were avoiding all of them or just her. I just told her to give you time and she just left right after. If she didn’t suspect anything before then she does now._

Aang knew Katara well. She was smart and could put two and two together. Even if Bumi didn’t directly answer her question, it confirmed what she thought. At the time he just decided that he wouldn’t deal with what he just learned and went ahead with his journey to the north pole.

Now that he knew that he would have to face her Aang was incredibly nervous. He was scared of what would happen. He could just leave as soon as he saved his friends from the Ozai loyalists, but he knew it wouldn’t be right to do so. He would have to stay with them for a bit before leaving. Aang kept thinking of ways to avoid talking to Katara.

‘ _Katara will want to talk in private so maybe I should make sure to have our friends around. Or maybe I can pretend to be sick…no that wouldn’t work._ ’

“You seem troubled Avatar Aang” a female voice came from behind him. Aang turned to see a dark skin girl with flowing white hair sitting on the saddle.

“YUE!” he jumped from Appa’s head to the saddle and sat in front of her.

“It’s good to see you Aang.” Yue smiled.

“It’s great to see you too. I never got to thank you for helping me when I was stranded in the ocean. Had it not been for your encouraging words and raising the tides then who knows what would have happened to me.”

“Don’t mention it. I already knew that you would save the world and you did. I’m always happy to help a friend, which you look like you could use right now.”

“What do you mean?” Aang asked with a confused expression. 

“Your mind seems clouded from what I could tell. You can’t go into battle if your mind isn’t clear so let’s talk about her.”

“Her? Who are you talking about?”

“Katara. Who else would I be talking about?” Yue rolled her eyes.

Aang rubbed his neck and chuckled nervously, “Oh yeah…of course”

“You cannot avoid confronting her. It was only going to be a matter of time before you saw each other again.”

“I know that I can’t keep avoiding her forever. It’s just…I’m scared. I feel like I am finally at a point where the pain in my heart doesn’t hurt as much as before. I felt like I was finally feeling better and that being away from Katara was working well for me. I accepted that she and Zuko are together but deep down…I still love her.”

“You’re scared of suffering in that pain again. I understand how it feels to watch someone you love be with someone else.”

Aang knew she was talking about Sokka. Yue had to fulfill her duty and became the moon spirit because of it, it cost her a chance at happiness with him and she had to watch over the world while Sokka was with Suki. Yue spoke again.

“While confronting Katara will not be easy it is something that must be done. The bond you two share is special and isn’t something you want to lose. She needs you just as much as you need her.”

“The war is over, and she has Zuko. What could she possibly need from me?”

“Zuko isn’t you”

Aang scoffed. Katara had chosen Zuko, likely because he older, taller, and better looking than him.

“Maybe that’s why she chose to be with him.” Aang suggested.

Yue sighed, “Even if that was the case Aang, it doesn’t mean you are not important to her. Your friends have already told you how she has reacted to your absence. You both have been miserable without each other. You two must confront each other.”

Aang looked away. Yue wasn’t going to give him much of a choice on the matter.

“Aang look at me”, Yue put her hand on his chin and turned his head so that he would look at her. “You are going to save your friends and when you do, you will not run away from Katara when she wants to speak with you. Give me an Avatar promise that you won’t run from this confrontation with her.”

“Fine! I give you an Avatar promise that I won’t run from Katara when she wants to talk”, Aang knew that as Avatar he had no choice but to make this promise. Especially when it was the moon spirit making him promise her. Despite that, Aang knew Yue was only doing this because she cared.

“Now that’s a good avatar.” Yue smiled as she started to pinch his cheeks which annoyed Aang.

“Do you seriously need to do that?”, he asked with a deadpan expression.

“Sorry, I can’t help it. For someone that is the most powerful bender in the world, you’re so cute Aang.” Yue giggled.

“I’m not cute…”, Aang grumbled, making her giggle even more.

“Want to know a secret?” Yue questioned him with half-lid eyes.

“Sure…” he replied curiously, not knowing where this was going.

“When you first came to the Northern water tribe, I was going to tell my father to break off my engagement with Hahn so that I could instead be engaged to you.” 

“HUH?!” Aang gasped. While he wouldn’t deny that Yue was beautiful, the idea of marrying her was crazy to him. Yue laughed at his reaction.

“It may sound ridiculous but it’s true. Marrying Hahn wasn’t something I wanted. I figured it would have been nice to be married to the Avatar instead. My father wouldn’t mind having you as his son-in-law. But I decided against it.”

“Why?”

“I noticed the way you would look at Katara. It was easy to see you had feelings for her back then”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because it was the same way Sokka looked at me”, Yue smirked. 

“Oh…” Aang flushed. Yue laughed again and turn towards the moon.

“It’s time for me to go now.” She said with a somber tone.

“Oh…well thanks again Yue. Talking to you made me feel better, it’s what I needed before I see Katara and my friends again. Is there anything you would want me to tell Sokka for you?”

“No, I already said all that I needed to say to him, he knows that I will always love him. I want you to give a message to Suki instead. Tell her that I’m happy that Sokka has her. She is very good to him.” 

“I’ll be sure to let her know Yue.” Aang replied with a smile.

Yue floated close up to Aang and kissed the arrow on his head. “Goodbye Avatar Aang”. After bidding him farewell, she faded away from the saddle.

“Goodbye Yue”

**Current day**

Aang was determined to save his friends but worried none the less. Appa had just flown over the fire nation islands and the fire palace could be seen from far away. Aang didn’t want to push his bison any more after flying non-stop all day and the sun was going down.

Aang peered at the palace and notice that nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“Well guys, it looks like we might have got here before the loyalists could attack”, he spoke to Momo and Appa. Neither said anything other than a grunt and a chirp.

**BOOM!**

There was an explosion on the left side of the palace.

“Monkey feathers! I spoke too soon. Appa fly faster to where the explosion came from!” he ordered his bison. Appa grunted and flew as fast as he could. Once they were close enough, Aang jumped off from Appa’s head and used his glider to fly down. Once on the ground and close enough, he saw a group of ten fire benders surrounding his friends. Only one of them was standing up.

‘ _KATARA!_ ’

The enemy fire benders got in position to attack.

“Oh no you don’t!” Aang stomped on the ground and raised his right arm up, raising an earth wall between Katara and the fire benders. He didn’t waste a second speeding up towards the loyalists. He jumped over all of them and landed in front of the wall.

“It’s the Avatar!!” one of the loyalists spoke.

Aang swung his staff and blew them all away. Four of the loyalists stood back up and punched their fire towards him but the air bender spun the fire right back at them with his own fire bending.

‘ _Gotta end this quickly!_ ’ he thought to himself. Before they could all get up, Aang stomped on the ground again and raised his arms up. The earth under the loyalists rose up and started to encase their bodies. Aang then brought his arms down and earth went down with the loyalists buried within the ground with their heads sticking out. Now they weren’t much of a threat to anyone.

Aang looked down at all of them and gave them a smirk. He then remembered his friends behind the wall he made. Katara was behind that wall. He turned back to the wall, ready to bring it down.

Aang was finally going to see Katara again after all these months. He wondered how exactly she was going to react. As he stood in front of the wall, he took a deep breath.

‘ _Here we go…_ ’

Aang bent the wall down and was face-to-face with Katara.

“Aang…” Katara spoke after what felt like an eternity for both of them. Aang had grown since the last time she saw him. Now he was just as tall as her and his facial features had become chiseled and sharp. The new muscles he grew did not go unnoticed.

“Hi Katara”, Aang forced a smile. For him, Katara was just as beautiful as ever although she seemed tired and worn out. Under her eyes were bags that weren’t there before. Her hair was messy and all over the place. He then turned to see Zuko wincing as he tried to sit up. Aang then looked to where his friends laid unconscious. Before Katara could speak Aang turned back to her and spoke.

“We need to get everyone to a secure area and heal them as much as we can.”

Katara was going through a roller coaster of emotions. She felt relief and happiness seeing Aang again after so long, but also sadness and rage because he took this long to come back to her. She had so many questions for him but knew that now wasn’t the perfect time to ask them. She nodded her head in response.

“You take Zuko and I’ll bring the others one by one.” Aang walked to Toph while Katara helped Zuko back on his feet. They all went into a living room area. Katara worked to heal Zuko’s injuries while Aang worked on healing Sokka. The palace servants brought in medical workers to help Toph and Suki. Katara was surprised to see Aang using water bending to heal. She wondered if he learned it because he didn’t intend on relying on her anymore to heal him. She had so much that she wanted to say to him, but their friends were her first priority. Zuko himself wanted to say something to the air bender but was in too much pain.

“A-aang…”, he tried to call out to him.

“Don’t speak Zuko. We’ll have plenty of time to talk later, right now you just need to rest”, Aang assured him. Zuko just nodded his head in return and closed his eyes.

After a couple of hours, they were done. Katara had left to change her clothes, leaving Aang and the others in the room. Suki was the first to wake up and was surprised to see Aang by her side. He explained to her how Avatar Roku warned him a week ago that the loyalists would attack them a week ago. Now that someone was awake, he could leave the room to call Appa and lead him to the stables. When Sokka and Toph would wake up, Suki could just explain to them what happened. As he got up to leave Suki grabbed his arm.

“There is something you need to know Aang. Katara overheard us talking about contacting you to help us with the loyalists.” She went on and explained to him what had happened before they were attacked.

“I’m sorry Aang. We didn’t mean for her to find out.” Suki started to tear up. Aang wrapped his arms around her to calm her down.

“It’s okay Suki. I shouldn’t have made you all keep this from her in the first place. I put you all in that position. It was only a matter of time before this happened.”

Suki hugged him back, still feeling like she let Aang down.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked. Aang leaned back and they finally let go of each other.

“For now, I’m just going to take Appa to the stables. He must be tired from all the flying he did to get me here in time.”

“And what about Katara?”

“I honestly don’t know yet…I’m going to have to talk to her but I’m not sure what to say.”

“You need to tell her the truth Aang.”

Aang nodded in return, he knew Suki was right. He walked out of the room and exited the palace through the front entrance. In his mind he was hoping that he wouldn’t have to confront Katara anytime soon.

“Leaving so soon?’ a voice came from behind him.

He didn’t need to turn to see who it was, Aang would recognize her voice anywhere. ‘ _Guess it’s now or never._ ’

“I’m just going to take Appa to the stables…I’m not going to fly off if that is what you’re worried about.” He replied.

She scoffed in return, indicating that she didn’t believe a word he was saying even though it was the truth. Aang turned around to face her.

“I’m telling you the truth Katara.”

“I would ask Toph to confirm that, but she’s unconscious, but then again she would probably just lie for you anyway.” she retorted. “Just like Suki and my brother did.”

“Please don’t be mad at them Katara. If’ you’re going to be mad then just be mad at me.”

“Oh, trust me I am definitely mad at you!” Katara cried out, “How could you just leave like that?! Do you know how worried I was? How could you leave me?!”

“I didn’t **want** to leave you Katara.”

“Then why did you?!”, she stepped up to and pushed him, “IF YOU DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE THEN WHY DID YOU?!”

Katara kept pushing him over and over again. When Aang didn’t answer she grabbed a hold of his shirt and started shaking him, yelling at him to answer her.

“WHY DID YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME?!”

He couldn’t take it, so he pushed her away from him.

“BECAUSE YOU BROKE MY HEART KATARA!” 

Katara’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘ _How did I--…oh right. Me and Zuko._ ’

“I figured that you would be hurt but I thought you were okay with us being together. When we finally told you guys the truth, you didn’t seemed bother by it at all.”

“It’s called acting Katara. Something those so called “actors” at the Ember night plays know nothing about. I had already known about you and Zuko before you decided to tell us.”

“What?! When did you find out?” Katara wondered. She and Zuko were cautious with their secret meetings.

“I found out the night I disappeared from Ember Island. I came back to the house and I heard you two talking about me”, Aang looked down at his feet, “I heard everything you guys said, and then I saw you guys kissing. I just felt like falling apart right there and so I ran out of the house.”

“Oh Aang…” Katara remembered that night. To think that Aang had walked in on them and they didn’t even notice. Aang looked up from the ground and back at her, his eyes narrowed.

“So much for being confused huh?”

It was her turn to look down, blinking away the tears forming in her eyes. Now he knew that she had lied to him that night.

“Please try to understand Aang. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you.”

“I know that, but it still hurt me none the less. After I finally defeated Ozai, I just knew I needed to go.”

Katara looked back up at him, “You didn’t have to go Aang. Just because I chose to be with Zuko didn’t mean that I stopped caring about you.”

“Contrary to what you might think Katara, telling someone that you still cared for them despite choosing to be with someone else just makes it worse. No one ever feels better after hearing that!”

“Either way it doesn’t mean that you still had to leave me like that. If you had just talked to me then—”

“Then what? How could us talking about it help at all? It would have just made everything between us awkward. We were already dancing around each other since the ember nights plays. Trying to talk about it would have just made everything worse.” Aang replied with an annoyed tone. 

“And leaving was the better option?!” Katara cried out.

“It was better than staying and seeing the girl I love be with someone else! I was suffering just being around you once the war was over.”

“You were suffering?” 

“You ever see those paintings of broken hearts and notice how they are always broken from the center instead of anywhere else? Because that is how it feel, and it hurts a lot Katara! I felt that pain constantly when I was around you, because even then I still loved you.”

“I made you feel that way?” Katara asked, feeling guilty. She knew that he would be hurt but not to that extent.

“Yes. If I had stayed then I would have just blown up on you and everyone else after bottling up how I felt. Leaving seemed like an idea that could benefit the both of us. I know that it was selfish of me to just go off like that, but I figured since you had Zuko then you would be okay.”

“How could you think that I would be okay with you gone from my life?! I was the farthest thing from okay when you left me.” Katara’s shoulder started to shake again, “I was miserable without you Aang. Do you have any idea how much it killed me to know that you were avoiding me after all that we’ve been through?”

Aang didn’t respond.

“Just how long were you planning to stay away from me?”

He must have heard that question over a hundred times by now and even then his answer remained the same.

“I don’t know”, he shrugged.

“Was it working for you?” she asked. Katara wasn’t sure if she was ready to hear his answer.

“I did feel better when I finally got out of the fire nation. But I still missed you Katara.”

She had already asked him multiple questions, but she still had one more for him.

“Do you still love me?”

The question caught him off guard. ‘ _Why did you have to ask me that?_ ’

Fortunately, before he could answer, they heard a grunting noise that came behind Aang. They looked to see Appa standing there with Momo on his head. Aang couldn’t feel more relieved with the bison’s timing.

“Hey guys, did I keep you waiting long?” Aang asked.

“Rrrrr” was all that Appa could say. Aang knew that Appa was telling him that he wanted to go to the stables already.

“Appa! Momo! It’s so good to see you two again.” Katara spoke up as she walked towards the mammals, eager to hug them. To both her and Aang’s surprise, they started to snarl at her.

“Guys, this is Katara. You know her.” Aang tried to tell them but they didn’t seem to care. All that Momo and Appa saw was the girl that had hurt their friend. Momo still remembered how devastated Aang was when he found out about Katara and Zuko and while he didn’t understand what was happening, he knew Aang’s sadness was caused by those two.

Aang sensed that if he didn’t keep them away from Katara, something bad would happen. He took hold of the reins and pulled Appa with him towards the stables. “It’s time for you two to get some rest.”

He turned his head back to her, “You should get some rest too. You used up a lot of your energy to heal the others”

They left Katara standing there bewildered at what just transpired. She eventually went back inside the palace. She realized that he didn’t answer her last question. Their confrontation wasn’t over just yet. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter. Be sure to let me know what you think.


	10. chapter 10

The moon was high up in the darkened sky when Aang led Appa to the stables. The past few hours tired him out and he couldn’t wait to get some rest. As much as he wanted to get some sleep, he needed to have a talk with his furry companions about their behavior with Katara earlier. Not once had he seen Appa and Momo act like this with anyone else so why now? Once they reached the stables, Aang was quick to pull the saddle off Appa’s back and the rope from his horns. With all of that done, he turned to Appa and Momo, who was still on top of the bison’s head.

“What was with that attitude you two had with Katara earlier?”, Aang asked with his arms crossed. The two flying mammals seemed put off by that question. They weren’t expecting him to be angry with them.

“Rrrrrrrr”, Appa groaned. 

“Katara didn’t mean to hurt me intentionally Appa. We can’t fault her if she wanted to be with Zuko”, Aang replied. It surprised him to hear that they knew that Katara was the reason for his pain.

“Rrrrrrrrrrrrr”, the bison groaned again. Momo jumped off of Appa’s head to Aang and hugged him tight. The last time the lemur hugged him was when Aang was punching the ground after seeing Katara and Zuko together.

“I can understand if you don’t want to forgive her but please for my sake…just be civil with her. No more snarling or growling at her.” Aang replied as he patted the lemur’s head. Satisfied with the pat on the head, Momo flew back to Appa, who just said nothing and immediately started to chomp on the hay that was left in the stable.

‘ _Guess I should just let them think about it_ ’, the air bender thought to himself as he left the stable. While walking back to the palace, he replayed the conversation he had with Katara in his head. He told her the truth and if there was one thing he could confirm from confronting her, it was that his choice to leave was the right one. Katara was adamant that he could have just stayed and talked to her, but how could he? There was just no way that he could.

‘ _Stay and talk to her about my unrequited feelings? Yeah, that would have worked out “great”. How could she have still expected me to stay with a broken heart?_ ’

Then there was the last question she had asked him. She had asked him if he was still in love with her. Why?

‘ _What would it matter if I still loved her or not? She’s with Zuko for crying out loud! What would she have said if I did tell her that I love her? She’d probably would just pity me._ ’

Katara’s pity was the last thing he wanted from her. Aang decided right there that he wouldn’t tell her the truth. She didn’t deserve to know that she still had his heart even after all these months. Even after all the pain he had endured. Aang finally arrived at the palace and immediately went to the room that was reserved for him. He needed to sleep. 

The next day, Aang met with Zuko in his office. Thankfully, none of the gang was too injured from the attack the other day.

“How are you feeling Sifu Hotman?” Aang asked. Zuko sitting at his desk, felt irritated with his friend’s nickname for him.

“You are never going to stop calling me that are you?” he responded with an annoyed tone.

“Yup, and there’s nothing you can do about it” Aang replied with a smirk.

“I’m the fire lord, I’m pretty sure I could something if I wanted to” Zuko scoffed.

“And I’m the Avatar. I can dish out whatever you throw at me”

Zuko chuckled as he stood up from his desk and walked over to Aang, “You’re probably right. It’s good to have you back with us, I missed you buddy”

“It’s good to be back. I missed you too” Aang replied as they hugged each other. He did miss Zuko during his time away from his friends. Aang could never be mad at him for his relationship with Katara. Even if it was the reason why he had left in the first place. The two broke off the hug and Zuko walked back to his desk.

“I’ve had the loyalists you subdued interrogated. It took my officers a while, but they were able to get the location of the loyalist’s headquarters. Anyone that they found there have already been taken into custody, so I don’t think we’ll have to worry about any more assassination attempts from them for now.” Zuko explained.

Aang let out a sigh of relief, “That’s great.”

Now that the threat against his friend is gone, Aang could leave without any worry.

“So how have you been? You’ve had us worried when you left without saying anything” Zuko questioned.

“I’ve been alright. I have been doing what I said in the letter that I left for you guys. Fulfilling my avatar duties and helping out wherever I could.” Aang answered. He already knew that Zuko found out about his reasons for leaving.

“So I’ve heard but there was another reason why you left.”

“Yeah, there was…” Aang turned his eyes away from Zuko. He really didn’t want to talk about this with him.

“Listen Aang…I’m sorry that we hu—” Aang interrupted him.

“I get it Zuko! I’m sure you’re sorry about how things turned out, but I don’t want to hear or talk about it. So just drop it, alright?”, the air bender narrowed his eyes.

Zuko was caught off guard by Aang’s irritated attitude. Not once has Aang spoken to him like that before. He decided to just do what his friend wanted and changed the subject.

“Alright, I’ll drop it”, Zuko put his hands up. The last thing he needed was to deal with an angry Avatar.

“Have you checked on the others yet?” Zuko asked.

“Not yet but I’ll go see how they’re doing now. Luckily, none of you guys got too hurt from the attack yesterday.” Aang replied, happy for the change of subject.

“Go on ahead. I just need to go through some letters, and I’ll meet up with the rest of you later.”

“Sure”, Aang walked out of Zuko’s office and headed straight to the room that his friends occupied now. As he entered the room he found them all on their beds except for Suki, who was cuddling with Sokka on his bed.

“Aang!”, Sokka cried out as soon as he saw him. Aang rushed over to his bed and embraced him in his arms.

“Glad to see you’re doing well”, they broke off their hug and Aang turned to Suki, “Shouldn’t you be resting on your own bed?”

Suki smirked and pointed at her boyfriend, “This guy right over here wouldn’t stop whining until I agreed to cuddle with him”

“Seriously Sokka?” he turned to him.

“Hey! I’ll have you know that cuddling actually speeds up the recovery process” Sokka spoke with a matter-of-fact tone.

“Where did you hear that Snoozles? ‘The idiot’s guide to healing’?”, Toph spoke up, sitting up on her bed. Aang turned to her and wrapped his arms around her.

“It’s good to see you again Toph” he pulled back from her.

“I’d say the same thing Twinkle-toes but…”, Toph waved her hands in front of her face, “well you know”

“Yeah I do”, Aang chuckled, “How are your feet?”

Toph pulled the covers off her legs and revealed her feet to him. From what Aang could see, there were still some burns from the day before.

“Still can’t really see with my feet”, she answered him.

“Let me see if I can change that”, Aang grabbed a bowl of water and bent the water to her feet. The water glowed at the contact and Toph immediately felt the burning sensation from the bottom of her feet peeling off. Sokka and Suki were in awe of how Aang was able to heal at a fast rate. After a few minutes, he was done.

“Alright Toph, try to walk”, he encouraged her. Toph turned her legs to the side of the bed and jumped off. She felt no pain when her feet hit the ground and was walking like she normally did. She turned back to Aang with a huge grin.

“You did it twinkle-toes! I can finally see with my feet again” Toph exclaimed happily. Aang smiled at his friend’s happiness.

“Guess those healing lessons at the north pole paid off” Sokka commented. Aang nodded his head in agreement.

The four friends talked for a while, Aang caught them up on everything since he had last seen them. Later the door opened and revealed Katara coming inside the room. She looked a lot better since yesterday, Sokka and Suki also noticed how bright she smiled when she looked at Aang. They hadn’t seen her smile like that in months. Katara looked surprised to see Toph already on her feet again.

“Toph, you’re walking again…” she said.

“Yup! Thanks to this guy” Toph responded as she punched Aang’s left shoulder. Katara looked back at Aang, who winced from Toph’s punch and rubbed his shoulder. Somehow Toph seemed to get stronger with every punch she gave him.

“Since when were you so good at healing?” Katara questioned Aang, remembering how he used water bending to heal the others after the attack.

“I was staying in the north pole with the northern water tribe and took Yugoda’s lessons. She was more than happy to teach me everything.” Aang responded.

“Guess she taught you well” Katara replied, “Since Toph’s feet are already healed then I got nothing to do, so how about you and I do some water bending practice together?”

“Nah, I’m good. I’m not really in the mood for any water bending practice.” Not that he didn’t feel like doing any water bending practice, he just didn’t want to be alone with her. Aang had a feeling that Katara would want to continue their discussion from the night before. She already knew why he left so there was nothing else that needed to be discussed between them.

“Oh, but I insist. It’s been a while since we’ve done any water bending together.” Katara wasn’t planning on taking no for an answer. She felt a pang of irritation at his instant refusal to water bend with her.

“I don’t feel like doing any practice right now Katara.”

“What? Is the Avatar suddenly too good to do any bending practice with his Sifu?” Katara crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.

“That’s not even close to what I said. I just don’t want to” Aang responded, annoyed at her accusation. 

“Either way you and I still need to talk so you might as well just come with me. Let’s go” she demanded.

“There is nothing more for us to talk about.” Aang stated. ‘ _Just leave me alone already._ ’

“Yes, there is! Now quit being so difficult and come with me”, Katara walked up to him and grabbed his hand. Aang pulled back his hand before she could drag him away.

“You’re not my mother Katara! You don’t get to tell me what to do” Aang retorted. Sokka, Suki, and Toph watched them go back and forth with each other. They weren’t sure how to handle the tension rising between the two. Saying anything would just lead them to getting ignored by the two. Finally, Aang decided he had enough of Katara.

“Forget this! I’m not going to sit here and deal with you” Aang walked past Katara and out the door.

“You are so not walking away from this!”, Katara followed him out of the room, leaving Suki, Sokka, and Toph in the room. All three of them flabbergasted at what they just saw.

“Should we follow them?” Suki asked the other two.

“I feel like we should” said Sokka.

Toph nodded her head, “Yeah, and if they get in a fight then I don’t wanna miss it!”. With that, the three jumped up and ran out the door.

Aang had already reached the courtyard with Katara hot on his tail. The sky was blue with the sun still high up in the sky.

“WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM AANG?!” yelled Katara. The air bender stopped moving and turned around to face her, allowing her to finally reach him.

“You’re my problem!”, he pointed at her, “Why can’t you just let me be? I didn’t want to do any water bending practice and you made a big deal out of it”

“Well excuse me for wanting to spend time with you after all these months that you have been gone! Besides, we didn’t get to finish talking last night”, Katara retorted, her hands clenched into fists at her side. Aang spread his arms out to his side in exasperation.

“I already told you why I left! What more do you want from me Katara?”

“I want to know if you still love me Aang!”

“WHAT FOR?! You’re with Zuko, what does that matter?”

“IT JUST DOES! Especially considering you left me because of how you felt about me”

Aang dropped his arms and turned away from her. Katara reached out and grabbed his arm to keep him from walking away again. “Stop trying to avoid this Aang”

“UGH, Fine!”, He spun back towards her, “I don’t love you anymore Katara”. Aang made sure to look her in the eye when he spoke. He could almost have sworn he saw a twinge of sadness in her eyes when he said that. ‘ _Probably just my imagination._ ’, he thought to himself.

She didn’t know why she felt hurt hearing him say that. Katara didn’t want to believe that he was telling the truth.

“You don’t need to pity me anymore Katara. Just go be happy with Zuko.” Aang spoke again. Katara flared up in anger at his words, however.

“Is that really how you think I felt? That I pitied you?! You should know me better than that!”

“Well that’s how it felt to me when I find out about your secret meetings. When you and Zuko finally decided to tell everyone, Zuko said you kept your relationship secret so that it wouldn’t cause a distraction, but you and I both know what he meant by that. You did out of pity for me” Aang crossed his arms.

“It wasn’t because I pitied you Aang, I already told you that I didn’t want to hurt you. I genuinely meant that.” Katara protested.

“If that’s what you want to think then that’s fine by me Katara, I don’t care. I’m done talking about this”

Aang turned his back to her and walked away. Katara, however, wasn’t done talking to him. She was getting frustrated with Aang’s constant aversion from her, “You may be done but I’m not. You can’t keep running from me.”. Aang elected to ignore her, in his mind there was no point in him staying to argue with her. They were both too stubborn. As he kept walking, Aang felt a smack of a whip to his right butt cheek.

“YEEOWWWWWW” Aang jumped up from the pain. As soon as his feet hit the ground they were automatically frozen, keeping him in place. He twisted his head back to see Katara in a water bending stance, scowling at him.

“You are not going anywhere” she stated. She had no intention of letting him avoid her any longer. Aang melted the ice from his feet with his fire bending and turned his body towards her.

“I don’t want to fight you Katara.” He growled, clenching and unclenching his fists. Katara wasn’t deterred by his words.

“You’re not giving me much of a choice. If I have to knock you down then I will” she avowed. With that said, she bent another stream of water at him. Aang was quick to jump from the attack. Katara was relentless with her attacks, bending the water in his direction. Aang used his air bending to run faster, avoiding her attacks.

“Come on Avatar! You can’t keep running, use all of the elements if you have to against me” She was goading him, and he knew it. ‘ _Let’s see if you can handle this_ ’, Aang thought to himself. Katara may be a powerful water bender but she’s never faced an air bender in combat before. Aang jumped up twenty feet in the air, as he started coming down he spun his body to gather as much air as he needed. When he finally touched the ground, Aang punched a huge powerful gust of wind at Katara and blew her off her feet. The gust of wind forced her back by a few feet from him. She landed on her back, tumbling further away. After she stopped tumbling, Katara forced herself to get back on her feet, despite her pain.

“You may be a master water bender, but I was an air bending master before you were even born Katara. I don’t need more than just my native element to beat you”, Aang boasted. Katara said nothing in return and got back into her stance. She bent the water from her flask around her arms and started running towards him. Aang dashed towards her, ready to counter-strike her at a moments notice. Before they could reach each other however, a blaze of fire came between them and stopped them in their tracks. The blast came from Zuko.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!” he hollered at the two of them. They didn’t give an answer to his question. Zuko made sure to get in between them so they didn’t try anything else with each other. “Well I’m waiting!”

Aang was the first to respond, “Your girlfriend wouldn’t leave me alone and attacked me, so I fought back” 

“Only because you wouldn’t stop trying to run from me!” Katara retorted.

“I wouldn’t have to run if you could just take ‘no’ for an answer.”, Aang exasperated.

Zuko turned his head to his right side, looking at the three figures watching them from behind a pillar, “You guys were watching them this whole time, why didn’t you stop them from fighting?”

Aang and Katara looked to see that it was Suki, Toph, and Sokka.

“Look at me man, how do you expect me to get in between Aang and Katara?” Sokka questioned Zuko. 

“Same here. I wasn’t going to jump into that”, said Suki.

“Honestly…I just wanted to see who would win”, Toph admitted. Zuko smacked his forehead with his hand and groaned. ‘ _Why did I pick these idiots to be my friends?_ ’ 

“I’m out of here. If you need me then I’ll be in my room Zuko. I need to meditate” Aang spoke up. Before Zuko could respond, the air bender turned around and jumped over to the window of his room. Then Katara started to stomp away as well, she was still seething with rage towards Aang.

“Katara”, Zuko called out to her, “Where are you going?”

“To my room, I want to be alone” she replied and continued on her way to her room. Toph, Sokka, and Suki walked up to Zuko. Sokka spoke to break the tension in the air left by Katara and Aang.

“Well that could have gone worse” he muttered. The others grunted in agreement. Katara slammed the door shut as soon as she stepped into her room. She leaned her back on the door and slid down to the ground. Aang closed the window and sat down in lotus position in the middle of his room. Now that the two were finally alone in their rooms; they could finally let their true emotions out. Katara pulled her knees to her chest and started sobbing. Aang buried his face in his hands and cried.

How could things get this bad between them?

A couple of hours later, Zuko was knocking on Aang’s bedroom door. Aang made sure to wash his face with water to hide the fact that he was crying. With that out of the way, he opened the door and let Zuko in.

“What can I do for you Hotman?” Aang asked.

“King Kuei sent me a letter saying that he’s throwing a party to celebrate our new trade agreements between all of the nations in a couple of weeks.” Zuko replied and handed Aang the letter.

“Oh yeah, I think he mentioned something about that last time I was in Ba Sing Se” the air bender recalled.

“Since we don’t need to worry about my dad’s supporters attacking, I was thinking maybe you and the others should head out to Ba Sing Se tomorrow and have some fun. My uncle Iroh will be sure to let you guys stay in his spare rooms at his tea shop.” Zuko suggested.

“That sounds great but are you sure it’s okay? What about you?”, Not that Aang wasn’t grateful for the chance to have some fun with his friends, Zuko’s suggestion just seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Of course it’s okay. I’ll meet up with you guys there later after I’m finished with some of my work here.” Zuko assured him. A thought then came to Aang’s mind. Would Katara be going with him to Ba Sing Se? He wasn’t sure about how Appa would feel about that considering what’s happened and especially for him as well after what happened between them today.

“Will Katara be coming with us?” he asked Zuko.

“Oh no she’s going to be coming a little later with Sokka. I already spoken with all of them and we figured it was best if you and Katara get some space from each other” Zuko replied. Aang wasn’t sure how to feel about his friends making plans like this without consulting him first but he knew there was no use in complaining about it now. This way was probably for the best.

Tomorrow had come and Appa was packed and ready for flight. It was decided that Suki and Toph would fly with Aang to Ba Sing Se while Sokka stayed back with Katara and eventually take a boat to the earth kingdom city. Normally Suki would stick with Sokka, but she was to meet with Ty Lee and the rest of the Kyoshi warrior for the new recruitment ceremony. As captain, Suki couldn’t afford to miss it. Toph decided that she didn’t want to wait too long to go to the city and was sick of staying in the fire nation for so long. Aang felt guilty however, he believed that it was his fault that the group had to split up because of the tension between him and Katara.

“Honestly Aang, this was to be expected but don’t be so hard on yourself” Sokka assured them. He had come to see them off.

“How can I not be? If I had just been calm and kept my emotions from getting the best of me then we wouldn’t have to separate like this” Aang murmured. Toph smacked his back in an attempt to get him to stop moping.

“Get over it Twinkle-toes! What’s happened is done and there’s no use being sad about it.” She stated, already annoyed with Aang’s self-blaming. 

“I agree with Toph. As much as I want to have Suki stay with me, she has important work to do with the Kyoshi warriors and I need to stay with Katara. Me and her are due for some sibling bonding time anyway.” Sokka insisted. Aang knew better than to argue with them. He hugged the water tribe warrior goodbye and jumped on to Appa’s head. Suki gave Toph a boost to the saddle. Once Toph settled on the saddle, Suki turned to her boyfriend. This was going to be their first time separating since the war ended. 

“Try not to get on your sister’s bad side” Suki instructed him with a smile.

“What kind of big brother would I be if I didn’t do that every once in a while?” Sokka chuckled. The couple kissed each other goodbye and Suki climbed on to the saddle. Aang looked down to his friend.

“Zuko couldn’t come see us off?”

“He had a meeting with the fire sages, but he wanted me to tell you guys to have a safe trip”, Sokka answered him. Aang nodded his head and looked back at the fire nation palace. He saw a flash of blue dashing behind the palace doors. Katara was watching them, peering at them from a distance. It saddened Aang to see her hiding like this from them…from him. He still blamed himself for what happened the day before. He looked back down to Sokka.

“Hey Sokka, can you tell Katara that I’m really sorry for how I acted yesterday?”

Sokka smiled at his friend’s request and gave him a thumbs-up, “Sure thing buddy, I’ll let her know.”

“Thank you”, Aang then turned his head to the girls on the saddle, “You two ready?”

Suki and Toph sat at the front of the saddle. Momo was resting on Toph’s right shoulder. Toph had both arms around Suki’s arm, she seemed nervous to fly and Suki was happy to provide the blind girl comfort.

“Ready!” Suki answered excitedly.

“Ready” Toph answered, although not as excited as Suki. Aang turned back to Sokka.

“See you in a few days! Appa YIP YIP!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter. I appreciate any feedback on the story.


	11. Chapter 11

After seeing Aang and the girls flying off on Appa, Katara retired to her room. She sat on her bed, retracing what happened within the past couple of days with Aang. Just as when he was finally back in her life, he left again. ‘ _I shouldn’t have been so forceful with him. If I just let it be then he wouldn’t have had to leave again_ ’, she thought to herself.

Katara heard a knock on her door, accompanied by her brother’s voice.

“It’s me sis. This a bad time?”, Sokka asked. 

“No it’s not. You can come in Sokka”, she replied. With that, Sokka opened the door and walked inside.

“Are you okay?”, he asked as he sat next to her on the edge of the bed. Katara shook her head.

“I drove him away again...”, she muttered.

“Whaaaaat? I don’t know about driving him away again. Eve—“ Sokka tried to assure her until she looked at him with her eyebrows arched.

“He left so that we would have space from one another after the fight we had. The fight that I started. If I hadn’t been so persistent with him then he would still be here” she retorted.

“It wasn’t his idea to leave Katara. It was Zuko’s idea and I agreed with him. What’s happened has happened so try not to dwell on it so much.”, Sokka placed his hand on her shoulder.

“What if he hates me now because of yesterday?”

“Aang won’t hate you Katara”

‘ _He couldn’t hate you even if he tried_.’ Sokka thought to himself. Deep down, Sokka knew that Aang could never find it in himself to hate Katara. He was still in love with her after all. Toph had already confirmed to him and Suki that Aang was lying when he told Katara he didn’t love her anymore.

“How could you be so sure?”, Katara wondered.

“When have you ever known Aang to hate anyone? The fire nation wiped out his people but he never once hated them for it. It would be silly of him to hate you just because you fought with each other” Sokka stated in a encouraging tone. Katara realized that her brother was right. However, she still wasn’t to sure after everything that happened. Sokka continued speaking.

“If he really hated you then he wouldn’t have asked me to tell you that he’s sorry”

Katara turned to him confused, “Sorry for what?”

“For how he acted yesterday. He’s been blaming himself for letting his emotions get the best of him. Just like you, he’s being hard on himself for how things turned out.”

“But I’m the one that kept pushing him. I was so irritated with how he brushed off practicing water bending with me and I wouldn’t listen when he said no the first time. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.”

“You may see it that way Katara but he doesn’t. Both of you can be really stubborn when you feel guilty about something”

She looked away from her brother, there wasn’t a point in arguing about it. Then she remembered why she was mad at her brother and turned back to him with anger in her eyes.

“I still can’t believe that you lied to me about him.” She growled. This time Sokka turned away from her. He knew this topic would come up eventually but wasn’t sure how to address it with her yet.

“My own brother and supposed friends...lying to me this whole time about Aang. You knew how worried I was yet you lied.” Katara snapped.

“Technically we didn’t lie...we just withheld what we knew” Sokka grumbled, still not looking his sister in the eye. Katara immediately got up from the bed and stood in front of him with her fists clenched.

“THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT BETTER SOKKA!” She yelled, making him flinch. “You could have saved us the trouble of looking for him but neither you, Suki, or Toph said anything! While I was wondering if he was safe or not, you were exchanging letters with him behind my back.”

“I didn’t like hiding the truth from you Katara”, Sokka sighed, “But you never saw him like I did. Aang was hurt and there was nothing else we could do. We couldn’t make him stay so we just said our goodbyes and let him go.”

“So not only did you know, you also got to say goodbye to him while he just left us a letter.” Katara was seething. “You could have just convinced him to talk to me before letting him make such a drastic decision like leaving us”

This time Sokka jumped up from the bed and stood in front of her. Towering over her before speaking, “That would have been the last thing he needed Katara! You were the reason he left. I get that you’re upset with me and the girls for lying to you, but if I’m going to be honest...I am not sorry. I did what I felt was right and I’m not going to apologize for it.”

Neither of the two siblings spoke for a few seconds. They just stared at each other, waiting for the other to falter. Sokka’s eye’s began to soften and so did Katara’s. She walked to her window with her arms crossed and watched birds flying from a distance in the sky. Sokka just glanced at her, waiting for her to say anything.

“What else did you hide from me?” She asked, not even bother to look back at him. Sokka sighed.

“We met with Aang on Kyoshi Island to catch up.”, he confessed.

Katara scoffed, “Of course you did. No wonder you didn’t ask me if I wanted to come with you.”

Sokka had no response for that. What could he say? It was the truth after all.

“At this point I was worried about you. Since he left you were barely smiling so I tried toconvince Aang to come back.”

“You did?” Katara asked, now looking at him.

“Yeah...I hate seeing you down Katara. I told Aang that you were miserable without him and insisted that he come back so that you would be better but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t face you again without feeling miserable himself.” Sokka explained, closing his eyes before continuing, “I still remember seeing the hurt look he had on his face. Aang didn’t want to go back to the way he was before he left and even looked terrified at the aspect of it. Whatever pain he was feeling after knowing about you and Zuko...it really scared him”

Sokka opened his eyes and looked back to his sister. Tears had started swelling up in her eyes and her arms dropped to the floor as she looked to him.

“Did I really...hurt him that much?”, Katara sniveled.

“Yeah, you did. But I know you didn’t hurt him intentionally and Aang knows that too”, Sokka stated.

His assurance however did not placate her. Katara knew that Aang loved her and would be hurt when he found out about her and Zuko, but she never meant for him to be so hurt that he would become scared. She never wanted that for him. Katara thought back to how desperately she wanted him back and was now thinking of how much pain he would suffer had she managed to successfully bring him back to her. She admonished him for leaving but never took the time to truly understand what her relationship with Zuko did to Aang. Especially after all they have been through together.

Katara buried her face in her hands and sobbed into them. Her knees gave out, causing her to go down until her brother caught her and held her in his arms. She clutched on to Sokka and buried her head to his chest.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him Sokka! That was the last thing I ever wanted to do to Aang...I never wanted us to be like this” she cried.

“Shhhh, I know you didn’t mean it Katara. I already told you that I know you didn’t do it intentionally and Aang knows it too.” Sokka consoled her, he rubbed his hand on her back still holding her as she let her tears flow. “Just try to be more understanding with him. He made the decision to leave because he felt that he had no other choice, not because he wanted to.”

Katara still sobbed on his chest, but nodded to indicate that she was listening to him.

“I’m not going to rag on you for choosing to be with Zuko. You made your choice on who you wanted to be with and Aang accepted that. So now you need accept how he chose to deal with it. Okay?”

At this point Katara had stopped crying and nodded her head again.

“When we get to Ba Sing Se, I’ll talk to Aang and try to convince him to talk to you again and you two can hash it out. Maybe you two will finally be able to go back to normal after talking.”

“Okay” Katara sniffed as she pulled her head back and wiped her tears. She looked up to her brother and smiled, “Thank you Sokka”

“No problem little sis. Now let’s eat some meat! I’m starving.” Sokka replied with a grin. Katara slapped his shoulder playfully.

“You just had to ruin the moment” she giggled.

“Oh please! If anything I added more to the moment. Meat makes things better after all” Sokka declared.

“You are such a meathead”, but Katara wouldn’t have him any other way.

-

After steering Appa for an hour, the air bender decided to sit with his friends. There was hardly any clouds in the sky so he didn’t have to worry about any storms delaying them on their travel.

“Alright buddy, I’ll just let you lead the way back to Ba Sing Se” Aang said to Appa. The bison grunted in agreement with him. Aang jumped up from Appa’s head to the saddle where Suki and Toph sat relaxing. Toph had let go of Suki and gripped one hand on the edge of the right side of the saddle while petting Momo who rested on her lap with her other hand. Suki sat across from her on the left side.

“You two excited?” Aang questioned them.

“You know it Twinkle-toes! No offense to Sparky, but it’s way too hot and stuffy out in the fire nation and I couldn’t wait to get out of there” Toph grinned.

“Same”, Suki agreed, “Plus I’ve missed spending time with my girls, so it will be nice to hang out with them and meet the new recruits. Only down side is not having Sokka around”

“Spirits Suki, I know you’re in love with Snoozles but you don’t gotta spend all your time with him”, Toph snorted.

“I don’t spend all of my time with him Toph!” Suki retorted.

“Then other than when you’re going to the restroom to do your business, when were you not with him these past few days?”

“I-I-I...well...one time I-...Ummm” Suki stammered as she struggled to think of an example of when she and Sokka weren’t together. Her face going red as her mind went blank. Toph turned to Aang.

“She’s blushing right now isn’t she?”

“Her face is almost as red as a tomato” Aang chuckled.

Suki crossed her arms and pouted. Aang scooted over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Don’t be upset Suki. We’re just teasing you. If it helps, I think you and Sokka are a really cute couple”

With that, the Kyoshi captain stopped pouting and felt herself light up at his words, “Thank you Aang”

“Moving on from the sappy couple that is Snoozles and Honey, let’s start talking about you air boy”, Toph suggested. Aang pulled his hand off of Suki’s shoulder and looked to Toph.

“What about me?” He wondered. Although he had a feeling about where this conversation would go.

“Why did you lie to Katara when she asked if you still loved her?”

Aang sighed, nothing could ever get past his earth bending Sifu.

“What would have been the point in telling her that I still loved her even after all these months?” Aang sighed, “She’s with Zuko so there’s not point in telling her”

“Maybe she was just curious”, Suki suggested.

“Even if she was curious, what would she have done if I told her the truth? Nothing. She wouldn’t do anything other than pity me” 

“So are you never going to tell her the truth then?” Toph asked.

“No”, Aang spoke without hesitation, “Katara doesn’t need to know.”

“If that’s how you feel then we’ll accept it Aang. We just don’t want to see you two fighting with each other.”

“It’s not like I wanted to fight her but she wasn’t really giving me much of a choice. Maybe If I had just gone along with water bending practice, we wouldn’t have ended up fighting”

“No twinkle-toes, you were right to stand your ground like that. I don’t care if you did leave her hanging for months. You don’t owe her anything.”, Toph insisted. Suki nodded her head in agreement.

“Toph is right Aang. I can understand that Katara wanting to talk and spend time with you, but she didn’t have a right to try to force you to go with her after you’ve already said no to her.”

“Do you guys really think so?” Aang wondered.

“Of course we do. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sugar Queen but she’s not perfect. She can get really bossy when she doesn’t have things going her way.”, Toph asserted.

“If she tries anything else like that again then you can count on us to back you up.” Suki reassured. Aang was glad to know that his friends wouldn’t let him deal with his problems on his own.

“Thanks, I really appreciate that...I just hope that Katara and I can still be friends after all this.” Aang replied with a smile.

With that came a moment of silence as the three pondered in their minds. They all laid on their backs.Suki and Aang talked about the shape of the clouds until Toph decided to bring up what she was thinking about.

“So I just realized something...”, she asked as she gazed with empty eyes towards Suki and Aang.

“What is it?” Aang asked.

“You two talk to each other a lot more now than you used to”, Toph stated. Suki and Aang looked at each other until Aang pushed himself to sit up and turned his head back to Toph.

“What do you mean? We’ve always talked to each other”

“Not like you guys do now. While the war was still going on, you two would just greet each other and barely conversed at all.”

“That’s not true...”, Aang turned to Suki, “right?”

“When we met with Suki at the railway station that went into Ba Sing Se and went on the Serpent’s pass, you two didn’t talk much.”, Toph pointed out.

“Well...I was more concerned about Appa more than anything else at the time...”

“And then when Suki got back with us after Snoozles and Sparky come back from the boiling rock, you didn’t talk much then either.”

Toph had a point. During the war, him and Suki never had a legitimate conversation between each other. Sure they were busy with trying to end the war but Aang still madetime to talk with the others. He never thought much about it until now even though he considered the Kyoshi captain as his friend.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself Aang. I never really made much of an attempt to talk to you because I was either busy talking to Sokka or I was...well too intimidated by you” Suki spoke up as she sat up as well.

“Intimidated?” Aang wondered as this came as a surprise to him.

“HOLD UP! You were intimidated by twinkle-toes? He is quite easily the least intimidating person I have ever met!” Toph exclaimed.

Aang looked back to her and narrowed his eyes, “Gee thanks Toph...”

“Hey I’m just stating facts here”, Toph shrugged. Aang was going to argue until Suki spoke up again.

“Aang is still the most powerful bender in the world Toph. His past life before Avatar Roku was Avatar Kyoshi who was someone I’ve admired ever since I was a child. From all the stories I heard, she was an amazing women always fought injustice and even lived over 200 hundred years. I wanted to be so much like her and became a Kyoshi warrior so that I could.”

Aang and Toph listened intently as Suki went on.

“When I first met you Aang, I was in awe of you, but I was also intimidated by you. When I first saw you, I assumed that you were just some weird happy go lucky kid only to find out you were Kyoshi’s air reincarnate. There was so much I wanted to ask but I was too nervous. So I kept my distance from you and then Sokka would distract me from thinking about you. I was hoping that Sokka would formally introduce me to you when we finished our training together but then Zuko attacked us and you all had to leave.”

Suki curled her knees up to her chest and hugged them as she went on.

“For a while I saw you as Avatar Kyoshi’s reincarnation and not as Aang. I would eventually see that you are a really great guy that just wanted to have fun but still had to save the world. When I got to see you all again while working security at the railway station and then again after escaping the boiling prison, I wanted to close to you but we were dealing with whatever was happening at the moment. I think the most we ever talked was the last time we were all on Kyoshi island and I finally got to know you.”

Aang said nothing and thought about what she had admitted. It wasn’t a secret that she looked up to Kyoshi, but the fact that Suki had felt intimidated and nervous around him saddened him.

“Suki...I’m sorry that I...well made you feel that way”, he tried apologizing but she wouldn’t let him. Suki moved up to him and put her hand on his.

“You have nothing to be sorry for Aang. I was the one that was overthinking everything. We’re friends now and always will be. That’s all that matters to me now.” Suki assured him. Aang smiled and threw his arms around her. She held him in her arms in return. He was glad that he made the stop to ride the Koi fish because had he not, then he never would have met Suki. As they broke their hug, Aang remembered something.

“Monkey Feathers! I can’t believe I forgot” he cried out. Suki looked at him with a worried expression.

“What is it?”, she asked.

“I was suppose to give you a message from Yue. I spoke to her while I was on my way to save you all. She appeared to me when I was thinking of ways to avoid confronting Katara. She made me promise that I would talk to Katara”, Aang explained.

“Yue? Wasn’t she suppose to be that northern water tribe princess that Sokka fell in love with? And even turned into the moon spirit?” Toph wondered.

“The very same”, Aang answered.

“What was her message for me?” Suki questioned. The fact that Sokka’s past love had wanted to say something to her caught her off guard. She never met Yue and only knew what Sokka had told her about the princess.

“Yue told me that she’s happy that Sokka has you now. She said that you’re really good to him and honestly I gotta agree.” Aang grinned.

“She really said that?” Suki was surprised. Aang nodded his head. She couldn’t believe that a girl that she heard so much about and never met had felt that way about her. 

“Wow...I guess that takes a load off of me. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t worry about the moon spirit being upset with me because I’m with Sokka now” she remarked.

“Didn’t you meet Snoozles before he met Yue anyway?” Toph inquired.

“Well yeah but I didn’t think I would ever see him or the others ever again when they left” Suki answered.

“Well congratulations, you got the moon spirit’s blessing to be Meathead’s girlfriend” Toph stated, clapping her hands unenthusiastically.

“Guess I do...” Suki shrugged and turned back to Aang with a grateful smile, “Thanks for passing the message...and for agreeing. It means a lot to me.”

“It’s no problem” Aang grinned.

“I know I was never curious about what you guys did before meeting yours truly, but I wouldn’t mind hearing more about this Yue chick” said Toph. Aang perked up at this, eager to tell them what happened in the North Pole.

“How about I start at the beginning then? We finally arrived at the North Pole...”

-

Katara stood before the door to Zuko’s office. A couple of hours after eating with her brother, she was informed by a royal servant that the fire lord wished to speak with her. On her way, she wondered what it was Zuko wanted to speak to her about. The arrangements for her and Sokka to take an Air ship to Ba Sing Se the next day was already set, so what more could he wish to speak to her about? Then she started to think about how little time they had spent together since she had come back from Omashu. Katara had let herself drown in a sea of sadness after realizing that Aang was initially avoiding her. She remembered how Zuko, Sokka, Toph, and Suki did whatever they could to make her feel better but just couldn’t. She had been so distraught over Aang that she neglected to spend a lot of time with them and neglected to take care of herself properly. Whenever she did choose to spend time with any of them, all she could think of was the air bender. She would keep wondering where he was, what he was doing, and wondered if she would ever get to see him again. Although when he finally came back, nothing went the way she had hoped and he had left again.

‘ _I know Sokka said not to be so hard on myself...but how can I not be? I made the situation between Aang and I worse.’, Katara sighed and shook her head,_ ‘ _No point on dwelling on it too much...I’ll try to be better when I see him again. I can’t lose him again..._ ’

She took a deep breath and knocked on the door lightly.

“Come in.”, Zuko called out. Katara turned the door knob and opened the door. When she stepped in, she saw her boyfriend sitting at his desk. It looked like he was going through some files. Closing the door behind her, Katara walked up and stopped in front of his desk.

“You wanted to talk to me?” Katara queried. Zuko shuffled up the papers on his desk and put them to a side. When he finally looked up to her, he seemed nervous. One hand was on the desk tapping away while the other he used to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

“S-s-so...um...H-h-h-h-ow wasss your day?” Zuko stuttered. Yup, he was definitely nervous. A baby turtle-duck could see how antsy he was being.

“It was good. So what’s up with you?” She questioned him.

“N-nothing is wrong...with m-m-me.” Zuko blurted. Katara wasn’t having any of this.

“Zuko.” She said with an authoritative tone and crossed her arms, like a parent scolding their child. Zuko took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“I wanted to talk to you about...us” he confessed.

“Oh”, Katara wasn’t sure what to expect, “What about us?”

“I want to break up with you Katara” Zuko winced. He finally said what he wanted to say for a while now. It was now or never for him.

“HUH?! Why? Is it because we haven’t had any time together?” Katara demanded. She knew that she hadn’t spent a lot of time with him but she didn’t think he would break up with her over it.

“It isn’t because of that. It’s because I realized that my feelings for you aren’t what I thought they were Katara.” Zuko replied.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I don’t really think of you in a romantic way like I thought I did” Zuko explained. Katara narrowed her eyes at him.

“We’ve been together this long and NOW you realize that?!” She fumed.

“Well not now...It started when I had suspicions about you and Aang a few weeks back”

“What suspicions?” Katara scowled. Zuko felt glued to his chair, unable to get away.

“That you really do have feelings for Aang”

“What?! How could you think that? That’s not true” Katara denied and slapped her hands on Zuko’s desk. However, Zuko, annoyance rising in him, didn’t waver and stood up.

“Cut the crap Katara! Ever since he left, Aang was all you could think of. Even when we were together I knew you couldn’t get him out of your mind.”

“I was worried because Aang is my best friend. He left without giving us any notice so of course I’ll keep wondering about him and whether or not he’s okay!” Katara objected.

“You were obsessed with him Katara. You went as far as threatening King Bumi with violence if he didn’t tell you where Aang went!” Zuko pointed out.

Katara twisted around and made a dash for the door. She couldn’t stand to hear any more of what Zuko had to say. Before she could reach the door, she felt Zuko’s hand pulling her arm.

“I had copies of the scrolls that contained information on Aang’s whereabouts that were sent to you. Be honest Katara and tell me how you felt when you read about his stop in Lu Rane village...about that water bending girl he spent time with.”

Katara clicked her tongue, still not looking at him. She remembered her exact reaction.

“Tell me” Zuko ordered.

“Fine! I was angry and threw the scroll at the wall. I thought he was trying to replace me and it just made me mad” she confessed. Zuko’s grip on her remained firm.

“Tell me how you felt when King Bumi told you about the prostitutes he sent to Aang’s room during his stay in Omashu.”

She twisted her head back at him, seething at him. Zuko stood his ground and waited for her to answer him.

“I was angry at Bumi for pulling such a disgusting prank like that on Aang and...I felt relieved when he told me that Aang didn’t have sex with those women.” She confessed again. She realized what Zuko was trying to do.

“Tell me how you feel when you think of Aang being in a romantic relationship with another girl that isn’t you”

Katara thought back to the first time they landed on Kyoshi island and the time Aang had thrown the dance party for the fire nation students.

“I-I feel bothered when I think of him being in romantic relationship with another girl. I don’t like the idea of him being like that with someone that isn’t me.”

There it was. Her answer confirmed what Zuko suspected and even now he wasn’t bothered by it.

“Now I want you to tell me one final thing. Tell me how you feel about Aang.”

Katara looked away from him and gathered her thoughts before finally answering him.

“Aang...he’s my best friend. He has always been such a sweet and funny guy. He’s very mature for his age. Even if he does like to play around a lot. He was the first person to believe in me and was willing to take to me to the North Pole to learn how to water bend even after we had just met. He reminded me what it was like to have fun again and was always there for me when I needed him. Aang would always find a way to make me feel loved and cherished. Whenever I was around him, I always felt happy. After spending almost a year with him, I couldn’t imagine my life without him in it and when he left...it was like a part of me was gone.”

Tears started to swell in her eyes when she remembered how she felt after Aang left. How distraught she was without him by her side. With each word she spoke, she felt herself become lighter. She looked back up to Zuko, who was smiling at her.

“You’re right Zuko...I do have feelings for Aang. In fact, I think I’m in love with him.” Katara finished and then wiped the tears out of her eyes.

“I told you so. I knew I was right.” Zuko chuckled and finally let go of her arm.

“It doesn’t bother you?” Katara wondered.

He shrugged, “It doesn’t. When I realized it didn’t bother me, I started to question my feelings for you. I would think back to our dates and remember how uncomfortable I felt when you wanted to do stuff like those dancing routines and talk about our feelings. We would almost always fight too. I felt like I had to change who I was when I was around you and I wasn’t happy about it. You and I are too different from each other and we both wanted different things.”

Katara reflected back on her secret meetings and dates with Zuko. She remembered always having to be the one to come up with ideas on what to do. When she had brought up the idea of dancing, he was resistant to it. Sadly he wasn’t a very good dancer like Aang was and had managed to step on her feet and drop her more than once. Zuko wasn’t the best at talking about his feelings either. Katara couldn’t blame him for that considering the environment he grew up in. Talking about feelings would have been seen as a sign of weakness in his family. When Zuko became more resistant to what she wanted to do, they would end up arguing with one another. Katara had hoped that their relationship would be able to thrive after the war ended, but it didn’t. 

“I would think of Mai a lot whenever you and I were together. I remember being happy and content with her. I miss her.”

“Didn’t she betray Azula so that you and Sokka could escape the boiling rock with my dad and Suki?” Katara asked.

“Yes...yes she did. She had to rot in prison for helping us and what do I do in return?” Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and cringed inwardly.

“Yeah...” Katara replied awkwardly. He didn’t have to say it but she knew what Zuko meant. A part of her wondered if Mai hated her for taking Zuko.

“So I guess we’re breaking up” she stated.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean that you and I still can’t be friends. I still care about you and always will.” Zuko insisted.

“I’ll always care about you too Zuko” Katara stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. Zuko returned the friendly embrace. After some seconds, they broke off their hug and smiled at each other.

“So are you going to try to convince Mai to take you back?” Katara asked.

“Well I’m definitely going to try. I just don’t know how I’ll be able to convince her” Zuko answered, rubbing the back of his head nervously. “What about you?”

Katara’s smile fell. Although she knew now what her feelings for Aang were, she didn’t know for sure if he would reciprocate those feelings. Aang did tell her that he didn’t love her anymore after all.

“Aang told me that he doesn’t love me anymore...so I don’t think he’ll want me ever again”, Katara groaned.

“Do you really think that he doesn’t love you anymore”, Zuko inquired.

“Why else would he say it?”

“I think it’s possible that he was lying to you Katara”

“But why would h-...” Katara then remembered what Aang had said to her.

_**“You don’t need to pity me any more Katara.”** _

‘ _Maybe that’s why he would lie. He thought I would just pity him for still being in love with me’_ , she thought to herself. She didn’t know that entirely for sure though. For all Katara knew, Aang could have been telling the truth but a part of her didn’t believe it. Either way, Katara was going to find out for sure if Aang still loved her or not. She was determined now more than ever to see him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the new chapter!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry If I kept you guys waiting too long. My time is very limited between college and working door dash almost every day so that I can provide money for my family. Covid isn’t going away anytime soon and I gotta keep my priorities straight. Maybe when the semester is over I will be able to post more chapters sooner.   
> If you guys didn’t hear, there is a massive protests by farmers in India because the government passed a bill that would favor corporations. Making the rich richer and poor poorer. As someone that is Punjabi and have had farmers in my family I can’t stand seeing such injustice. I want to spread awareness so that is why I’m bring it up. I don’t want to ask any of you guys for anything other than support for the farmers fighting for their livelihood.

After a few days of traveling, Aang and the girls finally made it to Ba Sing Se just as the sun was starting to set. The citizens looked up at the sky to see the sky bison roaming over the city and cheered at the Avatar’s arrival. They did this every time Aang came back to the city and he still wasn’t used to this much praise. It was likely that he never would. Appa landed in front of the Jasmine Dragon tea shop where Iroh stood outside to greet his new guests.

“Welcome back my young friends” Iroh greeted them. The teenagers climbed down from Appa’s saddle and greeted him back.

“Hope you got some nice tea ready for us Iroh” Toph said as she hugged him. She had a soft spot for him. Suki and Aang respectfully bowed to him.

“I’ll get some tea ready for you kids. For now why don’t you all just bring your belongings into your rooms.” Iroh insisted.

“How’s the tea shop business going Iroh?” Suki asked.

“Oh its going wonderful. So many customers come by to try my tea so I’m kept very busy. Fortunately I will have new employees I’ve recently hired to help me serve the influx of customers I have” Iroh grinned.

“Thanks for hosting us Iroh. I hope we’re not imposing on you” said Aang. 

“I’m happy to give my friends a place to stay.” Iroh replied as he placed his hand on Aang’s shoulder, “I just hope you’re good at playing Pai Sho”

“It’s been a while since I played but I don’t mind taking on the Dragon of the West in a match” Aang smirked.

“I look forward to it” Iroh chuckled.

Aang took took the saddle off Appa, he lead him to the stable to rest while Suki and Toph brought their stuff to their rooms. As Aang came back to the entrance of the tea shop, he heard a familiar squeaky voice call out to him.

“Aang!”

He turned around to see a tan girl with twin pigtails wearing a pink and green kimono. The girl walked up closer to him and Aang instantly recognized her.

“Meng!” He smiled. He gave her a hug, surprising her but she was happy to return the hug.

“It’s so good to see you Aang. I was wondering if I would ever see you again” Meng spoke as they broke off their hug. From what Aang could see, Meng had grown but was still shorter than him and still had the same cute smile he remembered.

“I’m glad to see you again. What brings you to Ba Sing Se?”

“Aunt Wu asked me to deliver some herbs to the owner of the Jasmine Dragon Tea shop. She insisted that I do it so that I can travel and see the world outside of my home village.” Meng explained.

“Well you’re at the right place. My friends and I just arrived and I could go for some tea right now. Want to have a drink with me?”

“Sure!”

The pair walked into the tea shop. Meng gave Iroh the herbs Aunt Wu had asked her to deliver which Iroh was grateful for. He set Aang and Meng at a table near the window, giving them a good view of the Ba Sing Se. Iroh had already taken their orders and went to work on making their teas.

“So other than ending the war, what have you been up to Aang?” Meng asked.

“Well I’ve been traveling the world with Momo and Appa. I still have my avatar duties to fulfill and now that we live in a world without war, I’m needed now a lot more than I was expecting”

“Guess an Avatar’s work is never done” Meng stated

“Yeah but I still make sure to make time to relax and have fun whenever I can” Aang replied.

“I head rumors that you’ve been traveling alone. Thought you would at least have your friends with you” Meng wondered.

“I…needed some time alone” Aang hesitated. Meng noticed the hesitation. Iroh came back to their table and brought them their tea. They thanked him as he walked off to get orders from customers.

“Did something happen?” Meng asked.

“You can say that I guess…” Aang faltered. He looked out the window as he thought about whether or not he should tell her. Meng studied his face, looking for anything from his expression that could tell her anything and she found something.

“It was because of Katara wasn’t it?”

Aang turned his head back to her, surprised at how she was able to deduce it without having said anything to her.

“How did you—“

“When you work as an assistant for a fortune teller, you tend to learn a few things” Meng grinned. She sipped her tea, satisfied that she was able to figure it out. “I guess she didn’t return your feelings”

“No she didn’t…” Aang replied as he took a sip of his tea. He told her everything that had transpired between him and Katara. Meng hung on every word that he spoke and found herself feelings sorry for Aang. She had already known about his strong feelings for Katara and accepted it after trying a dozen things to get him to notice her. She didn’t see what Katara saw in the current fire lord that made her choose him over Aang. Meng had initially felt guilty about calling a Katara a “floozy” when they had left Makapu village, but now she felt that she was correct in saying it. She reached her hand over the table and held Aang’s free hand.

“I’m sorry you got your heart broken like that. I can’t even begin to imagine how much that must have hurt” she tried to comfort him, squeezing his hand in hers.

“Don’t worry. I’ve gotten better since then so it doesn’t hurt so much right now” Aang smiled, squeezing her hand as well.

“You still love her don’t you?”

“Yeah…I still do. I thought I was finally able to push my feelings away but when I saw her again back in the fire nation…they just came back” Aang took another sip of his tea, remembering the last time he saw Katara and just how beautiful she was to him. 

“So avoiding her for a while only helped a little. Have you ever considered maybe dating other girls?” Meng suggested.

“Dating other girls? I don’t know about that.” Aang replied.

“Well why not? I’m sure there are plenty of girls that would want to date you.”

Aang looked down to the table and saw that Meng was still holding his hand tight in hers.

‘ _Oh no…Don’t tell me she still has feelings for me even now. Meng is cute but I still don’t see her that way._ ’, Aang pulled his hand back abruptly from Meng, leaving her confused by his action.

“Listen Meng, I think you’re great and all but I don’t see you that way” Aang spluttered, hoping that he wasn’t going to hurt her feelings. Meng took in what he had said and instead of being sad, she laughed. Now it was Aang’s turn to be confused. Meng wiped some tears that formed in her eyes from laughing before speaking.

“Don’t worry Aang. I’ve been over you for a while now. In fact I’m actually with someone now” Meng explained.

“Oh really? What’s his name?”

“Her name is Siu” Meng answered nervously.

“Oh…Ohhhhhhhh” was all that Aang could say to this new revelation Meng had given him. He was surprised but nonetheless was happy for her. “Well I’m happy to hear that you’ve found someone”

“You…don’t think it’s strange that I’m with a girl?” Meng asked nervously.

“Of course not. The air nomads were very accepting of everyone, no matter what their sexual orientation was. As long as you and your partner love each other and are happy together then that’s all that should matter.” Aang earnestly answered. Meng let out a sigh of relief.

“Thanks for saying that. That means a lot to me”

“There is something I would like to know”

“What is it?”

“Does she have big ears?” Aang chuckled.

“Yup! Her hair just covers them pretty well” Meng giggled. The two friends laughed and simultaneously sipped their tea.

“As I was saying before Aang, I’m sure there are plenty of girls that you could date and help you get over Katara” Meng said.

Aang thought back to what June had told him a week after his planned departure from Katara. “ _There are plenty of other girls out there for you Avatar Aang so I suggest you try not to be too hung up over her_ ”. He remembered when he did try to listen to her advice when Kano had kissed him. But even when he kissed her back, Katara still popped up in his mind like a bad memory haunting him.

“Well It’s not like I never thought about dating other girls…I just wasn’t ready since the last time I tried kissing another girl, I thought of Katara. I wasn’t ready to find someone else to be with” Aang said.

“How long ago was that?” Meng wondered.

“Three months after I left my friends.” Aang answered as he looked out the window.

“Well maybe you should try it again. You’ve had plenty of time to yourself anyway so maybe you’re ready to put yourself out there” Meng encouraged.

“I don’t know Meng…I just don’t know if I can just meet anyone that will make me forget about Katara.” Aang replied.

“How about a girl you already know? I’ve heard about your earth bending master, maybe you can try dating her?” Meng suggested. Aang turned away from the window and back to her.

“You mean Toph?”

“Yeah!” Meng grinned.

The idea of dating Toph was an entirely new concept to him but Aang wasn’t sure if he could imagine himself with her. He wouldn’t deny that he thought Toph was cute although he would never say it to her because he knew she would punch him for saying that. Aang wasn’t sure how he would feel dating someone that wasn’t very affectionate and openly picked their toes and nose in public. If anything, Toph was like the sister he never had. A very boyish sister, but a sister nonetheless.

“Toph and I are just friends Meng. I don’t like her that way and I’m sure she feels the same way about me.” Aang replied.

**_Meanwhile…_ **

Suki and Toph lumped down on to the couch after unpacking their belongings in their individual rooms. The trip had tired them out immensely and the girls were happy to relax. Suki turned to Toph.

“Hey Toph can I ask you something?”

“What’s up honey?” Toph answered, picking her nose. Suki looked away, disgusted.

“You think Aang will ever get over Katara?”

“I can’t say for sure honestly. Even after being away from her for so long I could tell he was still head over heels in love with her. That’s not something that just goes away easily I guess” Toph replied, flicking a booger from her finger. Suki nodded her head in agreement.

“Maybe we should try to convince him to start dating other girls. Maybe he can be with someone that will make him forget about his feelings for Katara”

“Even if we did who even knows if twinkle-toes will find somebody that will make him forget about his feelings for Sugar queen.”

“What about you?”

Toph turned her head towards Suki, “What about me?”

Suki looked back at her, “What if you could make him forget about his feelings for Katara?”

“What are you trying to say Suki?” Toph demanded, narrowing her blind eyes.

“Umm…I guess what I’m trying to say or suggest is maybe you and Aang try to be…you know together”

“Like you and Snoozles?” Toph replied with an annoyed tone in her voice.

“Well yeah”

“Just because me and twinkle-toes are the same age doesn’t mean that we would be compatible with each other. I’m not looking to be with someone that’s more feminine than I am and besides, he’s like a sister to me” Toph explained with a matter-of-fact tone. She felt annoyed that Suki would suggest such a thing to her.

“Don’t you mean he’s like a brother to you?” Suki inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“I said what I said” Toph simply stated and proceeded to pick her nose again.

**_Back in the tea shop_ **

“If not Toph then are there any other girls that you find attractive?” Meng asked.

“I mean I know girls that are pretty but I never thought of them that way at all” Aang shrugged, thinking of his other friends. Ty Lee and Mai did come to mind.

‘ _Ty Lee is pretty and has a bubbly, energetic personality. She and I could have fun together doing anything but I don’t think she’ll be available seeing as she’s busy with the Kyoshi Warriors. She seems to like guys like Sokka so she probably doesn’t see me in a romantic light. Mai is pretty too especially when she smiles. But her attitudes towards most things are usually negative and I can’t imagine myself being with someone like that._ ’ Aang weighed his options. Kano was another choice he considered but he wasn’t sure if she would have feelings for him as Aang and not the Avatar. Plus he didn’t even know when exactly he would see her again.

“Then I guess you’ll just have to meet someone new” Meng asserted. Aang was still uncertain about it.

“I don’t know Meng. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that” Aang hesitated.

“You have to give it a shot Aang. Avoiding Katara may have helped but you can’t avoid her forever and I’m pretty sure that’s not what you want to do. You can’t stay hung up on a girl that chose the guy that she literally stopped hating after like a day. I’m honestly surprised that you still have feelings for someone that shallow” Meng retaliated.

“Katara isn’t shallow!” Aang retorted, his grasp on his tea cup tightening.

“Katara literally chose Zuko after she stopped hating him. The guy who chased you all over the world. She picked him over you Aang. The guy who loves her for who she is and would die for her.”

“There was more to why she wanted to be with Zuko. They had things in common with one another” Aang reiterated. He wished Meng wouldn’t say such mean things about Katara.

“And you don’t? After everything you guys have been through together, she decided that she had feelings for Zuko. I just can’t understand why you aren’t angry.”

“What reason would I have to be angry? She never belonged to me to begin with. I have no right to be angry with her.” Aang replied, annoyed with Meng.

“She led you on Aang!” Meng argued.

“No she didn’t!” Aang denied.

“Then what do you call all those hugs and kisses she gave you? Whether she meant to or not, Katara was leading you on. You told me that she kissed you back before you and your friends tried to invade the fire nation on the day of the black sun. After all that she just decides that she wants Zuko after just forgiving him for what he had done. She forgot about you after all that and broke your heart. You have a right to be mad!” Meng pounded the table with her fists, nearly spilling her tea cup.

Aang looked away and back out the window. The truth was that a part of him was angry at Katara, but he suppressed those feelings because he didn’t believe he had a right to be angry. Katara was her own person and he couldn’t force her to be with him. That wasn’t how true love worked and he knew it.

“Fine! Maybe I was angry at her but I don’t deserve to be. She made her choice and I accepted it. I HAD to accept it” Aang admitted.

“Aang”, Meng sighed, “You know Katara better than I do, so I get why you wouldn’t want me to say what I’ve said. But what she did was pretty shallow of her. I’m not saying to stay mad at her your whole life, but just remember that feeling. Remember how you felt when you found out about her and Zuko. You still love her and she doesn’t deserve that from you anymore. You need to let go of her.”

Aang looked down to his tea cup, still so much of it left to drink.

“Do you really think me dating other girls will actually help me? That I’m even ready to do it?” He asked.

“Yes I do. I believe you should at least give it a shot Aang” Meng answered as she reached out and held Aang’s hand. “You’re a good guy and you deserve to be with someone that will love you with all of their heart. You’ll never know if things will work will work out if you don’t try.”

Aang looked up to Meng’s eyes and saw the concern in them. Meng meant what she said and was only helping him the best way that she could.

‘ _I guess it wouldn’t hurt to at least try it. I like meeting new people anyway and maybe I’ll find someone new to love._ ’ Aang thought to himself.

He sighed, “I’ll do it”

Meng smiled and squeezed his hand, “I just know everything will work out for you in the end”

“Thank you Meng” Aang smiled.

The two friends moved on from the topic of Aang’s love life and exchanged stories about what else they had both been up to since the last time they met. An hour passed and it was time for Meng to go back to her room and rest. She was going to go back to her home village and couldn’t wait to see Siu again. They both finished their tea and left the Jasmine Dragon. The sky was dark with stars blooming. It looked like Yue was out in full force since the full moon was shining up in the black sky. Meng turned to Aang as they stood outside.

“It was great seeing you again. Try not to get into too much trouble” she teased him and gave him a gentle punch on his arm.

“I’m the Avatar. Trouble finds me wherever I go” Aang chuckled. They wrapped their arms around each other in a tight embrace. Meng rested her chin on his shoulder.

“I hope you find someone that will make you happy. You deserve that much after what you’ve gone through.”

“Thanks. I promise to visit Makapu village when I get a chance. I want to meet the girl that captured your heart.” They broke off their hug and grinned at each other.

“I’d like that. See you around Aang”

They bid each other farewell and went their separate ways. Meng to her hotel and Aang to the Iroh’s back house where the Toph and Suki were. He walked in on the girls having a snack on the couch. Suki perked up when she saw him.

“You were gone for a while”

“After I took Appa to the stable I ran into an friend from Makapu village” Aang sat down on a chair that was next to the couch and told them about his talk with Meng. The girls both agreed with Meng’s sentiments and even told Aang that they would be willing to help with dating. Well Suki said she would help, Toph just agreed to watch Aang mess up and make things awkward.

“Gee thanks Toph” Aang muttered.

“I already taught you how to be head strong with earth bending. I’m sure you can handle talking to some girls, but I’ll still laugh at you if you do something stupid” Toph smirked.

“Ignore her Aang. I’m sure you’ll do just fine.” Suki put her hand on his shoulder, “I’ll help you with whatever you need.”

“Thank you Suki. I really appreciate it”

Aang wasn’t sure what he would be expecting but he was ready for it. Maybe now he could finally get over Katara and find someone new to love. Only time would tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all liked this chapter. As always be sure to leave a comment to let me know what you think of the chapter. They keep me motivated to do more writing which I love to do and I hope to give you all even more stories.


	13. chapter 13

Katara stood on the deck of the fire nation cruise boat that was on route to the nearest port of Ba Sing Se. Her and Sokka had sailed for a week and were a couple of days away from their destination. She had been anxious to see Aang again and apologize for her behavior with him. Even after Sokka informed her of Aang's apology, Katara still believed that it was her fault for their fight. A part of her was still bitter at Aang's sudden departure two weeks after the war ended, but she understood why he left. Even if Aang had decided to tell her about his plan to leave, there wasn't anything she could have said to make him stay. He didn't see any other choice other than leaving and nothing was going to make him stay and watch her be with Zuko. She knew that for a fact now.

Katara also knew now what she needed to say for her apology, but she didn't know how she would deal with her feelings for the air bender. There wasn't a time where she didn't think about him ever since her break up with Zuko. Every time she closed her eyes Katara saw Aang's lopsided grin and heard his sweet voice ringing in her ears. She yearned for him now and wanted to hold him in her arms, never letting go of him. Although she now knew what she wanted, Katara wasn't sure if Aang would feel the same.

" _ **I don't love you anymore Katara."**_

Those words hurt her then and hurt a lot more now that she realized how much Aang truly meant to her. Zuko had suggested that Aang could have lied about his feelings for her and Katara wanted to believe him but she was still unsure. She thought back to her last conversation with Zuko before departing from the fire nation with Sokka.

**Day of departure**

It was mid-morning when the three friends stood by at the port waiting for the cruise boat to finish preparations to sail. The weather was perfect with a clear blue sky and warm temperature. Zuko had luckily managed to squeeze some time away from his work to bid the water tribe sibling's farewell.

"So any idea on when you'll be coming to Ba Sing Se yet Zuko?" Sokka asked.

"I'm likely going to arrive a day before the party. I still have a lot of work to get through" Zuko answered.

"Well as long as you come. That's all that matters anyway.", Sokka gave Zuko a tight embrace, "Until next time then Fire Lord."

"Sure thing buddy" Zuko chuckled as he returned the gesture. The two friends broke off the hug. Sokka then turned to his sister.

"Alright I'm going to head into my quarters Katara. Don't take too long saying goodbye to your boyfriend." With that, Sokka went on ahead to the boat. Zuko looked to Katara with a confused look.

"You haven't told him about our break-up?"

"We just broke up yesterday Zuko. I've only had time to pack my things and rest for this trip. I'm going to tell Sokka soon, but I need to process what I'm going to do about Aang" Katara explained.

"Have you thought about what you're going to say to him?" Zuko inquired.

Katara shook her head, "I'm not sure what exactly to tell him. I know you said that he could have been lying to me about how he felt, but I'm still scared that he meant it."

"You're not going to find out if you let that fear keep you from telling him how you feel. Personally…I believe that Aang still loves you. Even if he won't admit it himself."

"I'll try to remember that. Hopefully I can figure out what to do on the way to Ba Sing Se. I can't lose him again…I refuse to." Katara stated.

"Atta girl" Zuko smiled as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure everything will work out between you two. I just know it."

Katara smiled back. Zuko's assurance easing her mind.

"So what are you going to do about Mai?" Katara wondered. From what she knew about her, Zuko was going to have his work cut out for him. Mai wasn't pleased with Zuko breaking up with her to teach Aang fire bending and made that very clear to him at the boiling rock. Despite being hurt by Zuko, Mai still helped him and the others escape. She willingly betrayed Azula for Zuko. Her love for Zuko trumped over her fear of Azula. Mai did it for him and he repaid her by forgetting her and choosing Katara. Zuko wouldn't blame her if she hated him for it.

"I already sent out a messenger hawk to her. I wrote down that you and I broke up and how much I want to see her. I already know that she's heading to Ba Sing Se with Ty Lee and I asked her to meet me at the Jasmine Dragon so we could talk. I just hope that she'll come" Zuko pulled his hand from Katara's shoulder and crossed his arms. She could see how nervous he was.

"Geez Zuko, we only just broke up and you already sent out a letter to Mai. You're quick to move on." Katara teased with a smirk on her face. Zuko gave her a smug smile back.

"Oh please. As if you're one to judge. I bet you've been fantasizing about Aang ever since we broke up." He retorted. His accusation made her blush.

"Shut up!" Katara smacked his shoulder. Zuko laughed at how riled up his comment had made her. Just then a siren sounded off from the cruiser to signal its departure. It was time for her to go. Katara turned back to Zuko and hugged him which he returned.

"Good luck Katara."

"Same to you Zuko."

They broke off the hug and he bid her farewell.

**Present**

Even after Zuko had assured her that Aang could have been dishonest about his feelings, Katara was still insecure. Aang could have been telling the truth for all that she knew, or he lied to her because he didn't want her to pity him. After already sailing for a few days Katara still didn't know how she would convey her feelings toward Aang. She leaned on the railing and looked out to the sea, letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Missing your boyfriend?" Sokka's voice came from behind her. She looked back to see him standing behind her, eating fire flakes that the crew provided him. Katara still hadn't told her brother about her break-up with Zuko. Her mind had been so focused on Aang that she forgot to tell Sokka about her and Zuko. Now seemed like a good time to tell him.

"No…we broke up." Katara declared plain and simple. Sokka choked on the fire flakes he had just consumed. Katara sighed at her brother's clumsiness and smacked his back, preventing him from choking to death.

"What?! Why? When?" Sokka exclaimed, dropping his bag of fire flakes. Katara giggled at her brother's reaction.

"Calm down doofus and I'll explain."

She told him everything that happened between her and Zuko when he had called for her to meet with him in his office. Sokka's expressions throughout Katara's explanation ranged from anger towards Zuko for breaking up with his little sister to surprise when he found out why Zuko had done it. By the end Sokka had understood why Zuko had done it.

"Sooo are you like…okay?" He asked. He knew break-ups weren't easy to deal with.

"I'm okay. I wasn't happy about it at first but in the end Zuko was right. He and I weren't meant to be together." Katara answered, holding her arms close to her chest.

"And now you think you're meant to be with Aang now?" Sokka questioned her again.

"I know I am. There wasn't a day that went by where I didn't think about him when he left us after the war ended. Aang has become such a huge part of my life and I can't live without him." Katara concluded.

"Hmmm" Sokka picked up his bag of fire flakes. Katara raised her eyebrow at his reaction. She expected a little more than just that.

"That's it? I thought you would have more to say about this."

"Cut me some slack, I'm still processing everything you just told me. It is a lot to take in after all." Sokka replied as he went back to eating his flakes, "So what are you going to do now? Are you going to tell Aang you love him now?"

"I want to…but I'm scared."

"Why?"

"When we fought, he said he didn't love me anymore. Zuko said that Aang might have been lying but what if he wasn't?"

The water tribe warrior found himself in dilemma. Toph already confirmed that Aang had indeed lied to Katara when he said that. Despite everything, Aang still loved Katara. Now Sokka didn't know whether or not he should tell Katara the truth. Sure, it would put her mind at ease, but Aang didn't tell her the truth for a reason. Sokka was sure that Aang wouldn't appreciate it if Sokka told Katara. If he didn't tell her though, Katara would remain unsure of herself and might not even bother telling her Aang how she felt due to her fear of rejection.

He instead chose to not reveal Aang's secret, but it didn't mean that he wouldn't encourage his sister to confess her love to Aang.

"I think you should tell him."

"Really?"

"Yes. I know you're scared but you won't find out how Aang really feels about you if you don't do anything." Sokka expressed as he continued eating his flakes.

"I don't know Sokka…" Katara mumbled. Sokka wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"Then how about I help you? I already agreed to talk to Aang so you two can hash out your problems and maybe I can find out whether or not he still has feelings for you."

"You would do that for me?"

"Anything for my little sister. I want you to be happy."

Katara rested her head on her brother's shoulder and looked out to the sea ahead of them. Thanks to Sokka, she was beginning to feel hopeful about her situation. However, she still was cautious.

"I just hope everything goes well" Katara muttered.

"Sheesh Katara, you worry too much. What's the worse that could happen?" Sokka asked confidently.

* * *

"TOPH!"

Toph paused her toe picking on the couch and turned to Aang's direction. The air bender marched through the front door to where Toph sat and shoved the newspaper he held in his hands to her face.

"What is this?!" Aang demanded.

"Ughhhhh…I don't know. For the last time Twinkle toes, I AM BLIND!" Toph replied annoyed. She was getting tired of her friends forgetting that she was blind.

"Oh, guess I forgot…" Aang sheepishly said as he pulled back the newspaper from her face.

"What's going on?" asked Suki who was coming from the kitchen with a cup of tea. Aang turned around and showed her the newspaper he held in his hand.

"The Ba Sing Se chronicles put out an advertisement telling women that I was single and "ready to mingle." I went to their office and demanded to know why they put it out and they told me a young blind girl told them to put the word out that I wanted to start dating and to spread the news."

Suki took the newspaper from Aang and looked at what was said.

" _Ladies, the Avatar is single and ready to mingle! If you want to reserve a date with him then be sure to come by and apply. This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity so don't wait! More information will be available before reservations made."_

"Toph! How could you do such a thing?" Suki admonished her.

"Let's be real, Twinkle toes would have taken too long to find another girl, so I made it easier for him. Now he's got options to pick from." Toph explained.

"This isn't how I wanted to go about it Toph!" Aang fumed. He couldn't believe his friend would go behind his back and do this.

"Too bad! By the way, your first date is tonight."

"What?!" Aang screeched.

"You have a date with a Noblemen's daughter at the Badgermole Diner. It's where all your dates will be. A carriage will arrive to take you there and back."

"How were you able to plan this out?" Aang wondered, still in disbelief of the situation.

"I have my ways" was all Toph said, smirking as she laid back down on the couch with her hands behind her head. Aang buried his face with his hands.

"I'm not prepared for this" he mumbled. Suki looked at him sympathetically. She placed her tea on the table next to the couch and walked up to the air bender. She pulled his hands down from his face and held them.

"I know this has…well come out of nowhere, but you should do it. I don't agree with how Toph went around doing this", Suki and Aang turned to Toph, giving her a dirty look.

"Just a reminder, I am still blind. You two are giving mean looks to a blind person so who are the dumb ones here?" Toph remarked. Suki and Aang looked back at each other, ignoring what she said.

"Toph did this with good intentions in mind. The plan was for you to start dating anyway so you might as well start tonight."

"But Suki I'm not prepared for this! I've never been on a blind date with someone I never met and apparently I'm going to have several. I won't know how to act at all" Aang replied.

"You just need to be yourself Aang. Just be yourself with your date and get to know them. It's that simple."

"Okay…be myself…okay. I got it" Aang sighed.

"Good!", Suki let go of his hands, turned Aang around and pushed him towards his room. "Now make sure you have something nice to wear and get ready for the date."

"Fine" Aang mumbled as he went into his room and closed the door.

' _Might as well go through with it._ ' With that thought, the air bender started preparing himself for his first blind date.

For the date, Aang wore an air nomad outfit similar to what he had on for Zuko's coronation ceremony. Only this time the colors were orange and red. He was still nervous about the date. He had only hoped that this first girl he was going to see was at least a nice person. After finally being done with his preparations, Aang realized he still had time before his carriage would arrive and decided to meditate until then. It wasn't long until he heard Toph call out to him.

"Yo Princess Twinkle toes! Your fancy carriage is here!"

He didn't appreciate being called princess. He let out a sigh and walked out of his room and to the living room area. The girls weren't sitting down, and the front door was open so it was safe to assume that they were outside. Once he was outside, he saw a big green carriage with an insignia of royalty printed on both sides of the carriage. It was attached to two ostrich horses draped in green and gold. The driver was at the front of the carriage waiting and ready to go. Aang couldn't help but feel that this was still too much for a simple air nomad, even if he was the Avatar. Suki and Toph waited by the side of the carriage for him.

"The carriage was kind of unnecessary Toph. I could have just walked and flew over to the restaurant with my glider." Aang said as he walked up to his friends.

"It wouldn't kill you to take a carriage Aang. You might easily forget this but…you are literally the most important person in this world. You gotta act like it. It wouldn't kill you to take advantage of that once in a while." Toph replied.

"Fine then I'll take the carriage." Aang resigned. There was no point in arguing with Toph about this.

"Still feeling nervous?" Suki asked.

"Yeah I am."

"You're going to be just fine. You look handsome by the way."

"Thanks Suki" He blushed at the compliment.

"Don't sweat it so much Twinkle toes. You look amazing." Said Toph.

"Thanks Toph! That mea—", Aang narrowed his eyes at the blind girl, "Seriously?"

"You all make it too easy for me" Toph laughed.

"Whatever." Aang pouted as he stepped into his carriage and took his seat. The girls stood in front of the carriage entrance; Suki had her hand placed on the door.

"Good luck Aang. Remember, just be yourself."

"You got this Twinkle Toes"

"Thanks, I'll do my best" Aang replied with a thumbs up. Suki closed the door and with that the carriage took off for the Badgermole Diner. As soon as his carriage was out of sight for the girls, another carriage came by in front of them. Suki was surprised but Toph wasn't.

"Alright honey, I hope you didn't have any plans."

"Why? Where are we going?" Suki asked, still confused.

"We're going to watch twinkle toes on his date. I reserved a table, so we won't be too far to hear or see anything. It should be entertaining to watch." Toph explained, stepping into the new carriage.

"Is that really such a good idea Toph? I don't think Aang would like it if we spied on his blind date." Suki responded.

"I'm the one that got him into these dates to begin with so I'm going. Now are you coming with me or not?" Toph impatiently asked. Suki stood by and thought about it. Finally, she stepped into the carriage and shut the door behind her.

"I'll come but only to make sure Aang will be okay." Suki stated as she sat down.

"Whatever you say honey" Toph grinned.

It only took a half hour for Aang's carriage to reach the Badgermole Diner. He stepped out of the carriage and walked into the restaurant where a host stood by a podium. The host instantly recognized Aang and led him to the table which was in the corner near the window. Aang was grateful for not being put at a table in the center of the restaurant. There would be too many eyes on him, and he didn't want to be watched by the other customers while on his blind date. Aang took his seat and looked to out the window. His view outside was a nice garden with a pond in the middle. He couldn't help but think that it would be a nice place to meditate peacefully.

"Is there anything you would like to drink Sir?"

Aang turned around to see a female waiter.

"Just some water would be nice."

The waiter nodded her head and placed two paper menus on the table. "I'll be back with that water as soon as I can."

"Thank you." Aang simply said. The waiter turned around and headed for the kitchen. While Aang looked over the menu, the host came back with a young lady who looked to be sixteen years old by his side. She wore a green and blue Shenyi. Her black hair flowed down past her shoulders.

' _She sure is pretty._ '

"Avatar Aang, might I introduce you to Miu of the Tsuya family." Said the host. Ling bowed her head towards Aang to which he responded by bowing his own head.

"It's nice to meet you Miu" Aang greeted her as she took her seat across from him.

"Likewise, Avatar Aang it is an honor to meet you" Miu responded with a small smile.

"You can just call me Aang."

"Oh…okay." Miu said nothing else. From what Aang could tell, she was nervous as well. For a minute, neither of them said anything. Aang waited for Miu to say anything but she had stayed quiet. She was not even looking at him as her gaze was set on the table.

"So…um…I heard that the Tsuya family is a noble family." Aang tried to start a conversation. Miu looked back up at him, hesitating before speaking.

"The Tsuya is a noble clan that have resided in Ba Sing Se since Avatar Kyoshi's era. My family specializes in trading and manufacturing."

"That's very interesting. Will you be working in the family business?" Aang wondered.

"No. It's only the men that work in it. The women stay at home and take care of the family" Miu replied.

"Oh…" Aang was about to ask another question but was interrupted when the waitress returned.

"Here is a glass of water for you Sir", She turned to Miu, "Is there anything you would like to drink Miss?"

"I would like some water as well."

"Very well. I'll return with your glass. Please look over the menu while I fetch your glass", with that the waitress went back to the kitchen. They both looked over their menu and knew what they wanted. When the waitress came back, Aang had ordered the vegetarian noodles while Miu ordered fried rice.

"So Miu…is there anything you like to do for fun?" Aang inquired once the waitress took their orders.

"Nothing really." Miu simply said, looking back down at the table.

' _Spirits help me._ ' Aang thought to himself. She wasn't really giving him much in terms of a conversation. From what he could see, Miu didn't look like she wanted to be on this date with him.

On the other corner of the restaurant, Toph and Suki sat at their own table watching Aang and his date from a distance. Thanks to Toph's enhanced hearing, she was able to hear them and relayed what was going on to Suki.

"What is up with this chick? Why even sign up for a date with the Avatar if this is how you're going to react?" Toph wondered.

"Aang seems to really be trying, but she's not budging an inch." Suki muttered, feeling sorry for the air bender. It didn't seem like his first blind date would even want a second date with him.

After a few minutes of Aang trying to keep a conversation going with Miu, the waitress had come back with their food. The two ate their meals in silence which at this point starting to irritate Aang. He was trying to follow what Suki had advised him to do but it didn't seem like this girl even cared. He needed to find out what Miu's deal was.

"Why are you here?"

Ling looked up from her rice, "excuse me?"

"Why are you here? You're barely talking to me so I'm wondering why you even bothered to be here." Aang stated.

"W-w-w-well I do want to be-e-e here" Miu stuttered, dropping her chopsticks. She seemed to be more nervous now. Aang wasn't having it, however.

"Miu! You have been nothing but disinterested since you sat down. I'm starting to think you just came here to waste my time." Aang fumed. This girl was getting on his nerves.

"No. That wasn't my intention Avatar Aang. I didn't mean to offend you." Miu insisted. She was panicking at his accusations.

"You have yet to give me any evidence to the contrary" Aang rebutted.

"Fine! I didn't sign up for this, my mother did!" cried Miu. Tears had started swelling in her eyes and threatened to fall.

"Huh?!"

Back on the other corner of the restaurant, Toph smacked her hand on her forehead.

"Crap! I should have seen this coming!" Toph grumbled.

"What?" Suki asked, Toph had yet to tell her what was said by Ling.

"Her mom signed her up to be here with Aang. She isn't here by her own volition. Her mom likely forced her to be here." Toph explained.

"Gosh, that's terrible. Should we do something about this?"

Toph thought for a moment before speaking, "Nah, let's just see what they do. I don't want to jump in without hearing anything else."

"So your mom is forcing you into this?" Aang asked, still in disbelief.

Miu nodded and sniffled, "I already had a boy that I love but my parents forced us to split so that I can be with you instead. If I married the Avatar then my family's status within the wealthy elite would have put them on top. They don't even care whether I would even want to marry you because they love the family image more than me."

This is the last thing Aang had wanted. Thanks to him, this young girl was forced to leave someone she loved just to be at on a date with him.

"I am so sorry Miu.", he bowed his head down, "I caused you trouble."

"No Aang! Don't be sorry, you didn't force me to be here. This is all my family's fault, and I should be apologizing for wasting your time like this. I was only acting disinterested because I thought it would make you not want another date with me. You're just trying to find love for yourself. I cannot fault you for that." Miu replied, clasping her hands. Aang brought his head up and faced her again.

"What will your family do if they know that I don't want to marry you?"

"They already didn't like the boy I love so there is no chance they will allow me to go back to him. They would likely set me up on an arrange marriage if I couldn't capture your heart. I would not have a choice in who I married." Miu's makeup had started to go down due to her tears.

"The boy you love…what's his name?" Aang wondered.

"Huan.", Miu smiled as she reminisced, "We met at the Ba Sing Se academy and became best friends. He always knew how to make me smile and laugh whenever I was down. He makes me feel loved…more than my own family does."

Aang decided right there and then what he was going to do. He stood up from his seat and held out his hand to Miu. She looked at him with a confused expression.

"I'll take you to him right now." Aang stated.

"I can't trouble you more than I already have Aang! I don't want to burden you with my problems." Miu insisted.

"You won't be troubling me Miu. I want to help you. We'll take my carriage and I'll bring you to Huan." Aang replied with his hand still held out to her. Miu still looked bewildered at his gesture until he gave her a lopsided grin. With that she took his hand and the two dashed out of the restaurant after leaving money for their meals. Miu told the carriage driver where Huan's home was and the driver didn't waste time.

On the way over, Aang and Miu sat across from each other and talked about whatever came to mind. He had told her of his time growing up in the Southern Air Temples and she had told him of her life growing up in Ba Sing Se. Ling herself had a question that she wanted to ask Aang since the start of their blind date but was not sure how to ask until now.

"Is it true that you prefer girls that are older than you?"

Aang nearly choked, "WHAT?! Where did you hear that?!"

"It was actually a requirement on the application.", Ling replied with a matter-of-fact tone. Aang buried his face in his hands and groaned. He already knew for a fact that Toph had something to do with that. Remembering that he didn't answer Miu's question, he looked back to her.

"I wouldn't say that I…prefer older girls. My most intimate experiences just happened to have been with girls older than me." Aang answered, remembering the girls that he had kissed before. Katara being the first girl he kissed, June being the second who had also introduced him to the concept of tongue kissing, and Kano being the last girl he kissed. Looking at his flustered expression, Miu couldn't help but giggle.

"Don't laugh, I'm sensitive…" Aang pouted his lips. That however just made Miu laugh out loud.

"I'm sorry Aang but you're just so cute when your flustered like this." Miu chuckled.

"I'm not cute…" Aang muttered, crossing his arms.

Eventually the carriage reached its destination. Aang looked out the window and realized that they were now in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. He then looked back to Miu.

"I'm gonna go ahead and guess the reason your family doesn't like Huan is because he isn't from a wealthy family." Aang stated.

"I'm afraid that is true.", Miu sighed, "But I love him for who he is, not for his background."

Aang nodded his head and opened the door. They stepped out and standing in front of them was a small house. Miu hurried to the front door of the house and knocked. The door opened and revealed a young man close to her age.

"Huan!" Miu cried out as she embraced the young man. Upon closer inspection, Huan had brown hair and had a very light skin tone. He was surprised to see Miu but returned the embrace. From what Aang could see, Huan was happy to see her again. The lovers eventually broke off from one another.

"I thought I would never see you again! I thought you would be with the Avatar by now." Huan said as he held on to Miu's hands. Ling stepped to a side to reveal Aang standing behind her.

"Avatar Aang brought me here after I told him everything. He wants to help us." Miu explained. Huan looked at Aang with astonishment.

"I am honored that you wish to help us Avatar but what can you do? The Tsuya family will not accept me as a suitor for Miu."

"As Avatar, I get access to royalty wherever I go. I'll talk to King Kuei and see if he can give you a suitable position within his administration. You will have a high paying job where you can both be together." Aang grinned. He didn't like to use his status as Avatar to get whatever he wanted but he didn't mind using it if it meant helping others.

"But what about my family? They might not accept him despite that and will try to take me away from Huan" Miu inquired. Aang brought his hand up to his chin and thought for a moment. He snapped his fingers when an idea struck.

"Then for now, you two will have to stay somewhere else. There is a secret house used by the White Lotus in the middle ring. No one has stayed in there since the war ended so you two can stay until you decide what you want to do next." Aang turned back and walked back to the carriage to speak with the driver. He quickly made his way back to Miu and Huan.

"I gave the driver the location, he will take you two there right now." Aang explained, gesturing back to the carriage.

"Thank you so much Aang!" Miu cried out as she let go of Huan's hands and hugged Aang. He hugged her back.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry this happened to you. This was my fault." Aang said with a sad tone.

"Do not blame yourself." Miu pulled her head back and looked at him, "You're just seeking a companion. I cannot fault you for that."

"Thanks for saying that Miu…do you think I have a chance at finding love like you and Huan have?"

She kissed his cheek before answering his question, "Without a doubt in my mind."

They broke off their hug. Huan walked up to him and shook Aang's hand.

"We cannot thank you enough for this. I only hope there is a way for us to repay your kindness."

"Just be sure to send me an invite to your wedding. I'll be happy to attend." Aang replied. He laughed when he saw both Miu and Huan's flushed expressions.

After packing what he needed, Huan and Miu went off in the carriage towards the secret house. Aang didn't mind not having a ride back home and used his air bending to jump from building to building until he made it back. He found Suki and Toph waiting for him in the living room.

"So where did you go?" Toph asked.

"On the date? You know where I went." Aang replied confused.

"I mean after you left the diner. We thought about following you but decided to just wait until you told us."

"Follow me? Wait…you two were at the diner too? You were spying one me?!" He looked to Suki who was looking at any other direction besides his.

"That's irrelevant!" Toph declared.

"I feel like it is releva—" Aang tried to say until he was interrupted.

"For crying out loud twinkle toes, just tell us what happened!" Toph hollered.

The air bender sighed and gave in to Toph's demands. He had explained the situation and what he had done for Miu and Huan.

"That was really sweet of you to do for them Aang. I'm proud of you." Suki said after he finished explaining.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you twinkle toes. I'll take a look back at your lists of dates and filter out the girls whose mothers signed them up. It would be better if you weren't in a similar situation again." Toph replied.

"There's actually something I wanted to ask you Toph."

"What is it?" Toph leaned back on the chair she sat on.

Aang narrowed his eyes at her, "What's up with the age requirement for the girls?"

"Considering your romantic history…", Toph held a smug grin, "It's obvious that you have a type."

"It doesn't mean I only like older girls." Aang retorted.

"Well I could change it but you already have a large number of blind dates ahead of you. If I change it then the number would just increase." Toph crossed her arms.

Aang raised his brow, "Large number? How many are there?"

"I'd sure love to tell you Twinkle toes but I'm really tired. I'm going to sleep." Toph said as she jumped up from her chair and walked towards her room.

"TOPH! How many?!" Aang yelled, his arms spread out. Toph turned her head back as she walked into her room.

"Goodnight." She simply said with a smug smile and slammed the door. Aang turned to Suki, hoping that she would know at least. But before he could ask, she was already shaking her head.

"Trust me Aang. I am just as clueless as you are."

"Guess I got no choice but to go along with it I guess." Aang sat down next to Suki on the couch.

"You don't have to do it. You can just say no Aang." Suki suggested.

"I could…but I don't want to give up after just one date."

Suki smiled and placed her hand on Aang's. "I'm glad to hear that. Just remember that you can come to me or Toph for advice…", she then thought for a moment, "On second thought, only come to me if you need advice about girls because I don't think Toph can help you much with that."

"I HEARD THAT!" Toph yelled from her room.

"I thought you were going to sleep Toph!" Aang yelled back.

"…SHUT UP!" Toph replied. Suki and Aang laughed at her childish response. After wiping the tears from his eyes after laughing so hard, Aang turned to Suki.

"I appreciate it. I'll be sure to get all the help I can get."

The first date might not have gone the way any of them expected but it wouldn't keep him from trying again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter. Expect the next chapter to come soon!


	14. chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope I didn't keep ya'll waiting too long. Next chapter I do might take some time for me to post. If you kept up with the news online, the farmers in India are still protesting and the Indian government are not treating them right. They have been spreading propaganda calling the farmers terrorists. Please continue to show support for the farmers fighting for their livelihoods. Thank you.

Toph kept her word and filtered out girls that were signed up by their mothers. If someone wanted to sign up to go on a date with the avatar then they had to personally come to the Ba Sing Se Chronicles headquarters and apply. While some applicants were taken off the list, there were still plenty of ladies wanting to meet Aang. Unlike Miu, the next few girls Aang met on these dates were interested in him. Some in his opinion, were too interested in him. 

Nia was one of those girls. She was also from a noble family that worked in politics. She had tan skin and had short brown hair. On their date, Nia had elected to sit next to Aang instead of across from him. He didn’t mind it at first, until she became really touchy with him. In the beginning she had just placed her hand on his bicep and as the date went on, Nia was caressing his bicep with both hands. Aang had flexed his muscles for her which she immediately took a liking to. He blushed when he noticed how enamored this girl was with him. However, Nia took it too far when she started groping the rest of his body from his chest to his thighs. Her hands had almost landed somewhere he really didn’t want her touching. 

“I wonder if you’re a master in bed too” Nia said with a flirtatious tone as she tried to make a grab for him. Aang had a momentary flashback to the last time he was in Omashu being ambushed by the sex workers Bumi had sent to his room. He immediately jumped from his chair and from Nia’s grasp.

“I gotta go!” Aang stated before dashing his way out of the Badgermole Diner. He didn’t plan on seeing Nia again for a second date.

Others like Nia had kept going into Aang’s personal space, making him uncomfortable with their advances. Although his dates were all older than him there were some that were just way too old to be going on a date with him. Even though he was the Avatar and the last surviving air bender, Aang was still a teenager. Grown women in their late twenties had signed up to date him with hopes of being married. 

One of them was Rika. The daughter of another noble clan who was desperate to be married. At the beginning of their date, Aang and her conversated well until the topic of marriage came up. Aang stated that he wasn’t going to think about getting married until he was older, but Rika didn’t take that well. She grabbed his hands and held on to them with a tight grip. 

“I can’t wait that long! I’m already 29 years old and all my friends are married. I have to get married!” Rika exclaimed. Aang pulled his hands from her grasp, startled at her behavior.

“I’m only thirteen years old! I can’t get married so young.” Aang responded. Rika wasn’t deterred in the slightest.

“You’re the avatar and the last air bender so it shouldn’t matter how old you are” Rika replied as she stood up from her chair.

“It matters to me.” Aang blurted out. Rika climbed over the table between them and placed her hands on his shoulder. Looking into her desperate eyes, Aang could tell that nothing would sway her. Rika looked like a predator, getting ready to jump her prey.

“I’ll be a good wife for you! Let me be the mother of your babies Avatar Aang!” Rika pleaded.

Aang tried to move but she kept him down on his seat as she edged closer to his face. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the left. Luckily, before she could do anything to him, Toph used her earth bending to flip the table over and send Rika flying across the restaurant. Apparently Toph and Suki were watching him on his date again. Normally he would have been upset with their spying but was thankful instead since they got Rika away from him.

After that particular date, Toph changed the age requirements. The last thing Aang needed was another woman desperate to get married going after him. Aang did have normal blind dates. Jin was someone Aang had a good time with. In his eyes, she was very pretty and fun to talk to. She had spoken about her last date with Lee, who she later learned was actually Zuko. Aang laughed as she told him of her date with Zuko. He already knew that Zuko was socially awkward at times but hearing about his date with Jin was hilarious. Aang enjoyed his time with Jin but he didn’t see her as someone he would want as a romantic partner. 

That seemed to be the case with all of his dates. He had never felt a spark with anyone, and it frustrated him. It didn’t help that he would find himself constantly comparing the girls he had met with Katara. Aang had begun to worry if he would ever be able to find anyone that would keep her out of his mind. Even after the numerous dates, he wondered if it was even possible for him to get over Katara.

Aang sat at his usual table in the Badgermole diner, waiting on his next date. He gazed out the window, admiring the garden again.

“Avatar Aang”, the host called out to him. Aang turned to see him with his date for the night. “I present to you Lady Mira of the Rastree clan.” 

Mira looked to be in her late teens. Her skin was pale and her eyes green as grass. Mira wore a green and black kimono and had her auburn-colored hair tied up in a bun. What Aang noticed about Mira was the expression she wore on her face. All of his dates when meeting him, looked on to him with admiration in his eyes but Mira looked at him differently. She gazed at Aang with indifference in her eyes. He didn’t want her to look at him with admiration, but the way she watched him was unsettling.

Before Aang could greet Mira she took her seat and spoke, “It is an honor to be in your presence Avatar Aang.”

“It’s nice to meet you Mira. Please, just call me Aang. Constantly saying Avatar Aang can be a mouthful.” Aang replied.

“I will not.” Mira flatly replied. Her response surprised him.

“But I insist th—”

“You are the Avatar and must be referred to as such with respect.” Mira interrupted him without hesitation. Aang didn’t want to argue so he decided to move forward with their date.

“Okay. So tell me about yourself” 

For a moment, Mira didn’t say anything. She only intently stared at Aang before speaking.

“I’m sure you have already been on a few blind dates already so let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?” She stated.

“Ummm….Okay.” Aang muttered, unsure of where Mira was going with her statement.

“The women of the Rastree clan are very fertile and have been able to produce many children within the family. Since you are the last air bender it is up to you to sire air bending children, so I am offering myself to you. As husband and wife, we would produce many children together.”

Aang’s eyes widened at Mira’s declaration. He waved his hands in front of her, “Whoa! Now hold on a second! It’s too early for me to start thinking about having kids.”

“I disagree. For anyone else your age it may be too early, but you are not just any person. You are the Avatar.” Mira replied, crossing her arms.

“Even if I am the Avatar and the last air bender, it doesn’t mean I want to have kids at the age of thirteen.” Mira was starting to remind Aang of Rika and he hoped this date wouldn’t end like that one did.

“Isn’t what you want?”, Mira asked as she leaned forward with her crossed arms resting on the table and narrowed her green eyes at Aang, “Then enlighten me Avatar Aang. What is it that you want?”

“I want to be with someone I love.”

‘ _To get over Katara._ ’

“I’m dating to find someone that I can spend the rest of my life with. I do want to have kids but only with someone that I’m in love with.” Aang confessed, hoping what he said resonated with Mira. For a moment she didn’t say anything. He looked to her and gestured for her to say something. She did.

“Grow up.” She said with a stern voice. Her response stunned him.

“Excuse me?” Aang asked as he felt offended by her words.

“Grow up. Love is the last thing you need to worry about. As the avatar you have a duty to keep the world in balance and as the last air bender you must produce children. You don’t need love to do that. What you are looking for is just a fantasy.” Mira stated.

“It’s not a fantasy!” Aang retorted.

“Believe what you may, Avatar. Worrying about such a thing like that will only hinder you. My family have had arranged marriages for centuries and are an elite clan because we don’t let such a childish notion hold us back.” Mira leaned back on her chair.

“Just because you don’t believe in love doesn’t make it childish! There are countless people in the world that are in love.” Aang growled, clenching his fists.

“And they are all fools.” Mira responded. Aang wanted to argue with her but held himself back. It was obvious that Mira was set in her ways and would not change her mind. Aang stood up from his seat, he wasn’t going to continue this date.

“There is no point in arguing about this. Neither of us will change the other’s mind so its best that we end it here.” Aang declared.

Mira looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “Do you not realize how big of a mistake you are making? I am easily your best option for a companion. You will not find a more suitable wife than I.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Have a nice night Mira.” Aang turned and began walking away from the table. Mira, however, was not done with him.

“You will not find what you are looking for.” She called out to him. Aang turned his head back to her. Seeing that she still had his attention, Mira continued speaking.

“You really think anyone would fall in love with you? It is only because you are the avatar and the last air bender in the world that people find you interesting. Take that away and you’re just a brat with no redeeming qualities. What girl would ever fall for a bald weirdo like you? Even if some girl does tell you that she loves you it will just be a lie. They would want the Avatar…not you…never you.”

Aang turned away from her, he didn’t want her to see him gritting his teeth. To see that her words had struck a nerve. He wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction.

“I’m going to pray for the unfortunate soul that ends up having you for a wife, Mira.” Aang said to Mira and walked out of the restaurant. He hopped into his carriage and told the driver to take him back to the house. As the carriage moved, Aang looked out his window. He saw adults, teenagers and children still out and about. Mira’s last words to him rang in his head as he saw couples walking around, holding hands, hugging, or kissing. He looked away from the window, growing sick and jealous of seeing all the happy couples.

Aang held his emotions together by focusing on his breathing until the carriage finally stopped at the house. He eagerly stepped out of the carriage, running into the house and to his bedroom. Aang didn’t see Toph nor Suki in the house but was thankful since he didn’t want to deal with their questions about his latest date. After closing his door, he walked up to his bed and crawled under his blanket.

Suki walked into the house after her nightly training session and found Toph waiting for her on the couch. Toph turned to her after sensing her vibrations.

“Something is up with Twinkle toes. As soon as I came, I heard him sniffing in his room.” She stated.

“Oh dear, any idea what’s wrong?” Suki wondered as she took her seat on the couch.

“No idea”, Toph shrugged, “But…he did have a date tonight. It could be likely that something went wrong.”

Suki looked towards the hallway where Aang’s room was and back at Toph, “Did you try to talk to him?”

“No”, Toph shook her head, “Figured that you should be the one to talk to him about it.”

“Why me?” Suki raised an eyebrow.

“Honey, I’m barely in touch with my own emotions. It’s usually up to Katara to talk to Aang about stuff like this but she isn’t here, and I doubt he would want to talk to her about it even if she was. You are the only other person here that can get him to talk.” Toph explained. Suki had to admit that she had a point.

“Fine” she said as she got up and walked towards Aang’s room. Standing in front of his bedroom door, Suki could hear faint sniffling from the other side. She tapped on the door gently, “Can I come in Aang?”

For a moment she didn’t hear anything then the door opened to reveal the air bender. From what Suki could see, Aang’s eyes were red. He wore his usual robes and looked tired. He stepped aside to let her in and closed a door. The room was dark, so he lit a few candles for light. The two of them sat on the edge of his bed, Suki watched him as he stared at the floor.

“Have you been crying Aang?”

“…Yeah…” Aang sighed. He recounted what had happened on his date with Mira, not leaving out a single detail. Suki listened patiently as her emotions ranged between anger and sadness. She wished that she had been at the badgermole diner because at least then she could have put Mira in her place. After Aang finished telling her everything Suki put her hand on his chin, making him look up from the floor and at her.

“That girl doesn’t know what she was talking about” said Suki.

“But…what if she was right? That no one would ever love me” Aang mumbled. 

“Mira wasn’t right Aang. I know that you can find someone that will love you for you, not for the Avatar. You can’t let one bad date bring you down like this!”

“It’s not even just Mira…almost all of my dates were girls that just wanted me because I’m the Avatar. They barely cared about me. What’s also worst is that I don’t feel anything when I’m with them. Not like I ever did with Katara…”

“Oh Aang…” 

Aang jumped from the bed and stood in front of Suki, “Every time I see how happy you and Sokka are…I just wish I could have that. I thought I could have had that with her but…”

“She’s still holding you back.” Suki observed. Even after being away from Katara for months Aang wasn’t completely free from her. Leaving had only kept Aang’s love and pain at bay and returned with double the amount of force when he saw Katara again. “It’s clear to me that we need to address your feelings regarding Katara.”

“What do you mean?” Aang asked.

“I mean we need to talk about you and Katara. How you felt when you saw her and Zuko that night. You’ve repressed your emotions so much that it’s practically eating at you. You need to let them out” Suki explained. Aang sighed and nodded his head, indicating that he understood what she meant. He took a moment to gather himself before speaking.

“I was…heart broken. I felt my whole being just shattering…I was sad and I’m ashamed to say that I was angry too.”

“Who were you angry at?” Suki inquired.

“Katara, Zuko, and then myself.”

“Why were you angry?”

Aang turned and started pacing around his room. “I was…angry at Katara for choosing Zuko who she had only JUST recently decided to forgive at the time. She pushed me aside for him. I was angry at Zuko for taking her from me. Finally, I was angry at myself for being angry with them…I didn’t have the right to be angry with them then and I still don’t even now. I couldn’t force them not to fall for each other…even if I couldn’t understand why. So I just pushed that feeling away.”

“Do you still feel angry?”

“Y-yeah I do.” Aang stopped pacing and gazed down at his feet, tears threatening to fall “W-w-why him? What did Zuko have that I didn’t?! After all that me and her have been through…”

Suki said nothing. She just watched as Aang let his feelings out. He pressed his palms against his eyes to rub his tears away.

“I hate that even after finding her and Zuko together, I still loved her. I avoided her to dull the pain and that only worked as long as I didn’t see her, but I couldn’t do that forever. Seeing her again in the fire nation, I realized that I still love her.”

He looked back to Suki, his tears falling, “Why am I like this Suki?” 

Suki jumped to Aang and held him in her arms. Her own heart breaking after seeing him so vulnerable. Aang’s head fell to her shoulder as he cried, his body trembling in her arms.

“I-I-I hate it Suki…and I hate myself for feeling like this. It’s just so f-frustrating” Aang stammered. Suki blinked her eyes to keep her tears from falling. 

“Sometimes I wish I could forget her…it would be so easy for me if I just forgot her completely, but I can’t do it. Katara is too important to me…I h-hate that I still love her Suki. Every time I think of her with Zuko, my chest feels like it’s splitting. It’s just h-hurts me so much.”

She tightened her grip on him, feeling afraid that he would fall apart if she didn’t hold him together. 

“I wish I never fell in love with Katara!” Aang sobbed, his tears drenching Suki’s top. Images of him and Katara flooded his mind. From when they first met until the last time he saw her. Aang held on to Suki as he wailed. Nothing could stop his tears.

“Keep letting it out Aang. Don’t hold anything back.” Suki insisted. It hurt her to see Aang like this. He didn’t do anything to deserve this pain.

“I never wanted to hurt her. I didn’t think my absence would effect Katara like it did.” Aang sniffled.

“I know you didn’t. You only did what you thought was best and we don’t blame you for it. But I think we can both agree that it didn’t help you.” Suki responded. His body was still shaking so she led him back to his bed and sat him down. She still held on to him and kept his head on her shoulder.

“It didn’t. I was just running away again.”

“Aang…love is complicated. It can make you happy, but it also can make you sad. Love can make you strong or weak, there is no in-between with love. However, you can heal from this…You just need to move forward and keep going. I know it won’t be easy but I promise you that you will be better in time.”

“But what if I can’t?” Aang murmured.

“Don’t think like that. You saved the world Aang…after everything you have been through…you still beat Ozai on your own terms and ended the war. I know you can move forward from this.” Suki encouraged, giving him soft pats on his back.

“I think I’d rather fight Ozai again instead of this.” Aang remarked.

“I’m sure you would” Suki chuckled.

“I’m scared Suki…” Aang muffled as he pushed his face closer to her shoulder. 

“What are you scared of?” Suki asked, resting her hand on the back of Aang’s head.

“That I’ll never find love. What if I can’t find that special connection with someone? What if I can’t find someone to love me for me? I want what you and Sokka have, but I’m scared that I’ll never have that with someone. I’m scared that Mira could be right…”

“You’re an amazing guy Aang. Any girl would be lucky to have you as a husband. Even if you weren’t the Avatar I’m sure that you could find someone to love you for you. There is someone out there for everyone.” Suki assured. Aang took her words in and his resolve came back.

“I’m going to keep trying with the dates.” Aang stated.

“Good.” Suki nodded. Aang pulled his head back from her shoulder and looked to her.

“Thanks for being here with me. Sokka’s lucky to have you” Aang smiled.

“Be sure to remind him when we see him again” Suki giggled.

“I don’t know if I need to. Sokka is always happy when he sees you.”

The two of them laughed together. After their laughter died out Suki pressed her hand against his cheek.

“Anytime you need to vent then just come to me. I’m your family too. You can think of me as your big sister.” She pecked his other cheek. Aang wrapped his arms around her again, tears threatening to fall again.

“I always wanted an older sister…thank you Suki.”

Suki held on to him tight, “You don’t need to thank me. Remember that you’re not alone. You can always count on me.”

Aang nodded his head. He was glad he made that stop on Kyoshi island to ride the Koi fish, otherwise he would have never met her.

“Will you stay until I fall asleep? I don’t want to be alone right now…” Aang requested.

“Of course.” Suki smiled and helped Aang settle into bed. She laid by his side and held him until he slept. Soon her need for sleep came, but Suki didn’t have the strength to leave the comfortable bed she was in. Before she closed her eyes, Suki looked to Aang’s sleeping face and made a vow. She would protect her brother no matter what.


	15. chapter 15

Suki was the first to wake up and found Aang snuggled up next to her with his head resting on her shoulder. She smiled at the sight of him sleeping peacefully. After what transpired last night, Suki decided to let him get plenty of rest. She stealthily placed his head on his pillow and got out of the bed. Before stepping out of his room, Suki took one last look at Aang sleeping. In her mind she saw his face in anguish as he vented his feelings out.

“ ** _Why am I like this Suki?”_**

“ ** _I wish I never fell in love with Katara!”_**

****

Suki wished Aang didn’t have to go through this. He did nothing to deserve this kind of pain. All he did was fall in love. She silently closed the door after stepping out and headed to her room to get ready for the day. After brushing her teeth and showering Suki walked to the kitchen to where she found Toph coming in from the back door of the house. Toph normally was the last to wake up between the three of them so Suki was surprised to see her up already.

“You’re up early” Suki commented, already getting started on boiling some tea. Toph took her seat at the kitchen table.

“I didn’t really sleep much. I listened on your conversation with Aang last night and decided to pay that Mira girl a visit.” Toph yawned.

Suki scoffed, “You couldn’t have asked me if I wanted to go? I wanted to give that girl a piece of my mind!”

“Aang needed you more.” Toph said with a matter-of-fact tone.

“Hmmm…true. So what did you do exactly?” Suki wondered.

“Let’s just say I restructured her home…and her face.” Toph grinned, wishing she could have seen the damage she had done to Mira’s face.

“Gosh I wish I could have seen that!” Suki laughed. She finished boiling the tea and poured a cup for her and Toph. Suki placed the teas on the table and grabbed cookies for the two of them. As she sat down she noticed Toph’s grin was replaced with a frown.

“So how is he?” Toph inquired. Suki sipped her tea before answering.

“Aang is okay for now I guess. He’s still sleeping in his room.”

Toph simply nodded and sipped her tea. She sighed, “Man…Sugar Queen really did a number on him.”

“In her defense it isn’t like she meant to hurt him.”

“True.”

“Aang won’t give up on the blind dates. He told me he would keep doing it.”

“That’s good. I wouldn’t have wanted all that work I did to set up those dates to be for nothing.” Toph remarked as she leaned back on her chair.

“I just want him to find a girl that will make him happy. He deserves that much.”

“Don’t worry your pretty head Suki. I’m positive things will start to look up for Aang today, what could possibly go wrong?” Toph chuckled.

* * *

“Come on Sokka! We’re going to be late for our monorail ride if you don’t hurry up!” Katara scolded her brother. They had finally got off the cruise boat and headed over to the monorail station at the outer wall of Ba Sing Se. They had just received their tickets and headed off to the terminal.

“Cool your jets Katara. We still got time before our monorail leaves.” Sokka replied, still walking at his normal pace.

“Well it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Katara retorted.

“Someone sure is eager to see Aang.” He teased her. Katara blushed and said nothing. She didn’t want to waste energy arguing even if Sokka was right.

They finally arrived at the terminal and sat down on benches as they waited for their scheduled transport. Sokka looked to his sister and saw her pulling strands of her hair. Katara was nervous.

Sokka sighed, “Getting nervous again?”

“Yes…I know you said not to be, but I just can’t help it.” Katara admitted. Sokka put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him.

“Everything will work out just fine Katara.” Sokka insisted.

“How can you be so sure of that?” 

Toph had already confirmed to Sokka that Aang lied when he said he didn’t love Katara. That was the only reason he was so sure, but he couldn’t tell her that. He knew Aang wouldn’t appreciate him telling Katara the truth and Sokka didn’t want to end up dealing with an angry avatar.

“I just am. Just trust your big bro on this!” He replied confidently.

“LADIES!” a young boy walked around a bag of the _Ba Sing Se Chronicles_ newspapers. He waved one newspaper in the air as he yelled out for attention from anyone at the terminal station. “DON’T MISS OUT ON THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME! GO ON A DATE WITH THE AMAZING AVATAR AANG!” 

The water tribe siblings whipped their heads toward the boy and looked at him with wide eyes. Katara immediately stepped up to the newspaper boy and gave him a coin for a newspaper. The boy gave her a newspaper and went on his way to sell more. Sokka came up behind Katara as she flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for.

" _Ladies, the Avatar is single and ready to mingle! If you want to reserve a date with him then be sure to come by and apply. This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity so don't wait! More information will be available when applying!”_

Katara turned to Sokka, the newspaper shaking in her hands and growled, “Still feeling so sure?”

He did not.

* * *

Aang had finally woken up and went to the kitchen to find Suki and Toph still eating at the table.

“Good morning Sleepyhead.” Suki smiled.

“Morning Twinkle toes” Toph nodded her head at him.

“Morning. I’m surprised to see you up before me Toph.” Aang responded.

“It’s just one of those mornings I guess. I’ll take a nap later to make up for it” Toph replied. Her and Suki agreed to keep what she did to Mira a secret. They knew he would not have approved of her violent actions towards Mira.

“Oh okay” Aang sat down next to Suki and turned to her, “Suki about last night…I’m sorry if I was too much to handle after well…you know.”

The Kyoshi warrior pressed her palm against his cheek, “Don’t be sorry. I meant what I said last night Aang. Anytime you need someone to talk to, you come to me.”

Aang nodded his head and smiled, “Okay.”

The trio talked over breakfast for an hour and eventually moved to the living room area. A knock on the door was heard. Suki opened the front door, finding Ty Lee standing on the other side.

“Suki! It’s so good to see you again!” Ty Lee exclaimed. She jumped at Suki and gave her a hug.

“I’m glad to see you again Ty!” Suki replied as she returned the hug. Aang and Toph came up to greet Ty Lee as she broke off her hug with Suki.

“Aang! Toph!” Ty Lee grabbed the two and pulled them in for a group hug.

“Hi Ty Lee” Aang enthusiastically greeted and wrapped his arm around her. Toph mumbled her own greeting and patted Ty Lee’s back.

“Ty you seriously need to stop leaving me behind. It’s too early in the morning for me to run after you” a monotone voice spoke from the front door. They all turned to see Mai standing there with an annoyed expression on her face. Ty Lee looked back at her with an apologetic smile.

“Sorry Mai. I was just so excited to see our friends again.” She apologized.

“Hi Mai” Aang greeted her. He was surprised to see her but was happy, nonetheless.

“Sup Gloomy” Toph said.

“It’s nice to see you again Mai” Said Suki.

“Hi” Mai greeted them all with a nonchalant manner. She then looked to Aang, “Can I talk to you in private?”

“Um…sure. We can go talk in my room if you would like to” Aang replied, wondering what exactly Mai would want to talk to him about. Suki and Toph shared a glance, wondering the same thing.

“That’s fine with me” Mai contented. Aang gestured for her to follow him and the two went off to his room leaving the rest at the living room. Suki turned to Ty Lee, hoping that she would have answers.

“Any idea why Mai would want to talk to Aang?”

Ty Lee bit her lower lip and placed her hands on her hips, “It might have something to do with the letter she got from Zuko…”

“Why would Sparky send a letter to his ex-girlfriend?” Toph inquired.

“Beats me…” Ty Lee shrugged, “A messenger hawk gave the letter to us just a few days ago while we were on our way here. Mai didn’t tell me much about it other than that she needed to talk to Aang. I tried to make her tell me, but she wouldn’t budge.”

“You two want to listen to their conversation?” Toph grinned.

“Ooohh! Let’s do it!” Ty Lee squealed. Before Toph and Ty Lee could move, Suki held them back.

“Mai wanted to have a **private** discussion with Aang! We are not going to go eavesdropping on them.” Suki declared and sat them both down on the couch.

“Awww” both Ty Lee and Toph groaned. Suki shook her head at their childishness.

* * *

Aang closed the bedroom door after he and Mai entered. He urged her to take a seat on his bed while he pulled a chair for himself from his desk. Mai sat on the edge of his bed, gazing down at the floor while Aang sat across from her.

“Sooooo…”, Aang started, “What did you want to talk about?”

Mai sighed before looking up to him. “Zuko sent me a letter.”

“Oh”, Aang was unsure of what that had to do with him, “Is something wrong with Zuko?”

“I think it will be easier to explain if I just let you read the letter.” Mai responded then pulled out a scroll from her left arm sleeve, handing it to Aang and clasped her hands together as he opened the letter. Aang unrolled the scroll and began reading.

_Dear Mai,_

_I hope this letter finds you well. I know I’m likely the last person you want to hear from, but I need to tell you my truth. I made a mistake…again. After what happened at the boiling rock I thought I would never see you again. I assumed Azula would have killed you for betraying her for me and I fell into despair. After Katara finally began to trust me again I thought that we had a connection. I saw her in a different light but now I know it wasn’t right. Subconsciously, I replaced you with her and tried to be happy with her…but after I found out you were alive, you were all I could think of when I was with Katara. There is so much more that I wish to say but I would rather say it in person than in this letter. The point of the letter is to tell you that I’ve broken up with Katara and I want to see you again. I will be coming to Ba Sing Se for celebration party being held by King Kuei. I will arrive in the city at least a day before the celebration and will be staying with my uncle. I implore you to meet me at the Jasmine Dragon so we can talk. Please give me a chance._

_Love,_

_Zuko_

After reading the letter, there was one line that Aang read over and over again in his mind.

“… ** _I’ve broken up with Katara…_** ”

“They…broke up.” Aang muttered. He wasn’t sure how to feel about this new development. His emotions were all over the place. One part of him was happy to hear it while another part was sad for Katara. Aang hoped she was okay. He wondered then what this meant for him. Mai put her hands on the bed and leaned back.

“Yeah and I wanted you to talk to you about this.” She stated, her monotone tone replaced with an uncertainty. 

“Why me?” Aang inquired, looking up to her.

“Because it’s like Ty Lee said back on Kyoshi Island, we’re both on the same boat when it comes to Zuko and…Katara. I think it’s likely that she will try to talk to you about this.” Mai explained.

“Why would she? Just because Zuko broke up with her for you doesn’t mean that she wants to be with me now.” Aang replied.

“Maybe, maybe not. It’s just what I think personally. Either way I wanted to let you know and ask for your opinion.”

“Oh…well thank you for the heads up. I’m still processing this so I don’t know if I could form an opinion right now on how I feel about them breaking up.” Aang crossed his arms.

“I also wanted to ask you something else. Do you think I should…well…see him when he arrives?” Mai leaned forward with her hands on her lap.

Aang raised an eyebrow, “I think you should do what **you** want to do. Not what I think you should do.”

“It’s like I said, same boat. You’re the only other person I know that can relate to what I went through. I want to at least hear your perspective on whether I should see him or not. Maybe give me some avatar wisdom.” Mai suggested.

“Not sure if I can give avatar level wisdom on this situation. I’m not even sure there is any wisdom that I know of that can cover this topic.” Aang chuckled.

“Well then tell me what you think at least.”

Aang leaned back on his chair and thought for a minute. Personally, he was still reeling from the news of Zuko and Katara’s break up.

“First tell me how you feel Mai” he said. Mai blinked and sighed.

“I’m not sure how to feel. It’s like a…war inside me. One faction of me hates Zuko for what he did, and another still makes me still love him. I keep thinking about the good and the bad times we had together. How content I felt when I was happy in our relationship and then how much he hurt me.” 

Mai wrapped her arms around herself as she thought of her time with Zuko.

“I fell for him when I was a kid. He was always so sweet to me before he was burned and banished by his father. When we first kissed, it was like my life become a fairy tale story and I normally don’t like fairy tales. Just being by his side kept me happy.” Mai smiled at the wonderful memories. Aang thought to himself how pretty Mai’s smile was until it curved downwards.

“When he dumped me so he could train you I was upset but I got over it when he explained to me why he did it. I couldn’t stop him from doing what he felt was right and I betrayed Azula so that he and the others could get away. I loved him too much to let Azula kill him and what does he do for my sacrifice?” Mai stood up from the bed and walked to the other side of the room. Her anger boiling within her as she remembered seeing Zuko and Katara together. “He left me behind for HER!” 

Aang stood behind her but said nothing. Choosing to let her vent out her frustrations. Mai turned back to face him, seething “I LOVED HIM AND HE BETRAYED ME!”

“So I left! I couldn’t stand to stay and watch him be happy with her. Now after all this time, he decides that he wants me back. Just when I thought that I could move on he sends me a letter and now I find myself yearning for him again!” Mai wiped away her tears furiously.

“Even after all the crap he put me through, I still love him. I’m split on whether I should see him or ignore the letter.”

“My f-f-feelings are all over the p-place…and I don’t know what t-t-to do…” Mai wept. Seeing her so emotional like this surprised Aang but he didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around her. She flinched at the unexpected contact but relented to it in the end.

“It’s okay to cry Mai. You need to let it all out.” Aang consoled her. He felt her head drop on to his bare shoulder as she cried. He tried to soothe her by rubbing her back like how Suki did for him the night before.

“I know how you feel Mai…even after I left I realized that I still loved Katara despite everything that happened.” Aang finally spoke his mind, “You and I both ran away to avoid the pain but in the end…it didn’t solve anything.” Mai said nothing in return.

“You asked me if I think you should go see him and honestly I believe that you should. You need to confront Zuko. Hear him out on what he wants to say to you and then tell him about the pain he put you through. Talking to him might be the only way you can resolve this.”

Mai pulled her head back from his shoulder and looked into Aang’s eyes. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks stained with tears. 

“And if he asks me to take him back?”

“Do you want to?” Aang inquired.

“I know I don’t want to be a sloppy second for him to run back to…” Mai spat.

“Then don’t. Confront him and hear his truth then decide next what you want to do.”

Mai nodded her head and then thought for a moment before speaking, “What if I decide to give him a taste of his own medicine?”

“What do you mean?” Aang asked. Mai pulled her hands back and cupped Aang’s face.

“I hurt him the same way he hurt me. I could tell him I want to be with someone else…that someone being you.” She explained.

“Why me?” Aang tried to pull his face back from her hands but she held on to him with a firm grip.

“It could be poetic justice considering he took the girl you love.” Mai grinned.

“You and I both agreed that we wouldn’t work well together. Are you trying to tell me your mind has changed since then?” Aang narrowed his eyes.

“I’ll admit that I might have been a tad bit curious about you.” Mai rubbed her thumbs over Aang’s smooth cheeks.

“Whether or not you have been curious about me, I’m not going to let you use me to hurt Zuko.”

“He didn’t just hurt me Aang…he hurt you too.”

Aang tried to turn his gaze away from her but she made sure that he looked her in the eye. “If not that then will you fulfill a request I have?”

“What is it?”

“Kiss me.” Mai simply stated.

“Mai I can’t d—” Aang tried to deny her.

“Please Aang! Just one kiss. I haven’t kissed anyone since Zuko. I just want to see if I can feel something…anything” Mai begged. Aang couldn’t understand why she needed to kiss him but since it was a request.

“Fine” Aang accepted, sighing. Mai didn’t hesitate after that. She gently pressed her lips against his. Aang pressed forward and wrapped his arms around Mai’s waist as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The tilted their heads to deepen their kiss and Mai, deciding she wanted more, pushed her tongue through his lips. Aang was only surprised for a moment before intertwining his tongue with hers. 

* * *

“And that’s how I broke my left leg the second time!” Ty Lee finished telling a story from her childhood.

“Riveting story Ty…” Toph said with a deadpan tone. The three girls sat in the living room catching up. Just then they heard a loud hammering knock on the front door. Toph could already tell who it was from the vibrations.

“It’s Snoozles and Sugar queen.” Toph informed them. Suki quickly jumped from her seat and ran to the door, excited to see her boyfriend.

“Sokka!” She cried out after opening the door. Sokka stood in front of her with a wide smile.

“Suki!” He stepped in and wrapped his arms around her waist. He picked her up and twirled her around the living room. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him.

“Awwwww” Ty Lee smiled at the affection the two lovers were displaying. Toph cringed at the the sounds they were making. Katara walked through the door, smiling at her brother and Suki. She then looked around for Aang but didn’t see any trace of him. When she caught sight of Toph sitting down, Katara marched up to her and brought the newspaper she bought up to Toph’s face.

“Would you know anything about this?” Katara asked. Toph turned her with an annoyed expression on her face.

“Again, I can’t see. How many times do I have to remind you people that I’m blind?!” She pointed to her blank eyes. Katara pulled back the newspaper from her after realizing her blunder. Sokka broke off his kiss from Suki, much to her dissatisfaction, lowered her down and let go of her to stand next to Katara.

“I meant to ask if you had anything to do with this _“date with the Avatar_ ” ad on the newspaper.” Katara clarified.

“Yeah that was me” Toph proudly stated.

“Why?” Sokka asked.

“Aang decided that he wanted to put himself out there and start dating” Suki answered, “So Toph decided to **help** him in her own way.”

“Speaking of Aang, where is he?” Katara asked, feeling anxious.

“Mai wanted to talk to him in private so they’re in his room right now.” Ty lee responded. Both Sokka and Katara’s eyes went wide.

“What would Mai want to talk to Aang about? I didn’t even think they were close friends.” Sokka said.

“It might be because of the letter Mai received from Zuko. She just told me that she wanted to talk to Aang and not much else.”

Katara and Sokka both glanced at one another wondering the same thing. Was Mai informing Aang about Katara and Zuko’s break up? Katara had hoped that she would be the one to break the news to him. Now Mai might have thrown a wrench into that plan. Suki saw the look the siblings shared with one another.

“Is there something wrong?”

Katara looked to her and then Toph and Ty Lee. This wasn’t how she planned to announce her new single status, but she felt that she had no other choice now.

“Zuko and I broke up.” She went on and explained what had happened. The girls were surprised by the news. “Zuko helped me realize that it was Aang that I truly loved.”

Ty Lee awed at what Katara said but Suki and Toph had surprised looks on their faces.

“So **NOW** you’re in love with Twinkle toes?” Toph asked incredulously.

“I think I was always in love with him…I just didn’t know it yet.” Katara replied. Sokka placed his hand on her shoulder before speaking.

“And today you’re going to be able to tell him.” Sokka encouraged.

“You are?! Oh my gosh Katara! That’s great!” Ty Lee exclaimed. Katara nodded her head but her brother continued speaking.

“So let’s put an end to the “ _date with the Avatar_ ” nonsense. After Aang is done talking to Mai, I’ll talk to him and fluff him up for Katara to apologize for what happened back at the fire nation and confess her love.” Sokka stated.

Katara smiled at his optimism and began to feel at ease. Toph murmured something about waiting until after she spoke to Aang before pulling the ad out of the newspaper.

“No.”

They all turned to Suki, confused at her declaration.

“Suki what do you mean “no”?” Sokka asked.

The Kyoshi warrior stood her ground, “I mean no, she isn’t going to confess her “love” to Aang.”

“Yes, I am” Katara retorted, feeling irritated. Who was Suki to say what Katara could and could not do?

“You can’t Katara. This isn’t what Aang needs right now. It’s only been what? Like a few days since you broke up with Zuko and now you want to pounce on to Aang after your now ex-boyfriend pointed out your feelings?” Suki said. 

“It’s not just feelings Suki, I’m in love with Aang.” Katara countered.

“Either way, it’s too soon for you to tell Aang that you love him now. The last time you two were near each other you were fighting! A fight that need I remind you…was started by you! You need to mend your friendship with him first before even thinking about telling him that you’re in love with him.” 

In Suki’s mind, all she could hear were the words Aang had spoken last night.

“ ** _I wish I never fell in love with Katara!_** ”

‘ _Aang literally broke down because of what Katara did to him. I know she means no harm but now isn’t the right time. We don’t know how this will affect him, especially after last night. I can’t let him get hurt again._ ’ She thought to herself. She had sworn that she would protect her little brother no matter what. Sokka looked to her and wondered if anything had happened since he last saw her in the fire nation.

“Honestly, I gotta agree with Suki.” Toph spoke up _,_ “I can tell that you’re being honest Sweetness, but you can’t just tell Aang how you feel and expect him to accept it so willingly. Especially now that he’s been in the dating game for a few days now. You’re just going to be dropping something huge on him and we don’t know for sure how he’ll react.”

Katara didn’t understand where Suki and Toph were coming from but felt it was better not to argue with them. She was too tired since she and Sokka hurried their way over to the house from the monorails. Despite their insistence, she decided that she would see for herself whether or not she would tell him. Katara couldn’t stand to wait too long, she yearned for him and wanted to make up for lost time.

Sokka pulled Suki to the side, away from the others, and whispered in her ear.

“Toph already told us that Aang lied when he told Katara he didn’t love her. The three of us know the truth so why not just let Katara do it? Isn’t this what Aang would have wanted?”

“It’s complicated Sokka. I’ll explain more to you later so just please trust me on this.” Suki replied. He wanted to press her for more answers but decided to heed her wishes.

* * *

Back in Aang’s bedroom, he and Mai had just pulled apart from one another. He certainly didn’t expect the kiss to become a whole make out session, but he wasn’t going to complain. He’d be lying if he said that he didn’t enjoy it. They both tried to catch their breaths and watched each other with flushed expressions.

Mai spoke first, “Didn’t expect you to know how to kiss like that.”

“I have experience” Aang replied with a smug grin. They still held each other in their arms.

“I’m sure you do. It was nice…” Mai smiled.

“But?” Aang inquired.

“I didn’t really feel anything like I did kissing Zuko.”

Aang nodded his head, understanding where she was coming from. Not even he felt a spark kissing her. The two pulled their arms back from each other.

“Are you disappointed?”

“I wouldn’t say that. I had a good time and it’s been a while since I had a decent make out session.” Mai answered earnestly and continued, “I’ve decided that I will confront Zuko and for now I need to think about what it is I’m going to tell him.” 

Aang smiled at her declaration, “I’m glad to hear that.”

“Thank you for hearing me out and giving me some advice.”

“Anything for a friend.” Aang opened his door and the two walked out to the living room where they found everyone else at, including Sokka and Katara. Aang felt elated to see Sokka again. He felt a mix of emotions when he set his sights on Katara. He made sure to keep a neutral expression to avoid showing any emotion. Sokka walked to him and wrapped him in a bear hug.

“Hey buddy. I missed you” Sokka said. Aang returned the hug.

“Not as much as you missed Suki I bet” Aang chuckled.

“You’re right about that” Sokka smiled. The two let go of each other and Sokka then turned to greet Mai.

“Hi Mai, cut anyone with your knives lately?”

“No but it’s only noon. Still plenty of time left in the day.” Mai responded with her usual bored tone.

“Geez, how often do you throw your knives at people?”

“Pretty often.” Mai smirked then turned to Ty Lee, “I’m going back to our hotel room.”

“I’ll go with you.” Ty Lee responded as she jumped from the couch. They both headed to the door. Mai walked past Katara, not acknowledging her presence one bit. Katara wanted to say something to her but had a feeling that Mai wouldn’t care to hear what she had to say. Before stepping out, Mai turned back to Aang with a smile.

“Thanks again Aang. For the talk and for showing me a good time. I’ll see you around.” She gave him a wink and blew him a kiss. Aang’s face went flush while the others were stunned by what they just witnessed. With that out of the way she left, Ty Lee rushing after her to get her own answers as to what just happened.

Aang kept his eyes down to the floor to avoid the looks he was receiving from everyone. Suki was the first to speak.

“Aang…what did Mai mean by showing her a good time?”

“Well…we kind of…she wanted to kiss me…and we did…for a while.” Aang admitted, making sure not to look at Katara so he wouldn’t see her reaction. He knew he would see her again but the news of her break up with Zuko had made him nervous. He wondered if she blamed him for Zuko dumping her for Mai. Aang had a feeling he might have had something to do with the breakup but wasn’t sure.

Upon hearing Aang’s confession, Katara felt a sting of pain on her chest. She worried that she and Zuko were too late. Wondering if Aang and Mai had moved on from them with each other. Katara didn’t know what she would do if that turned out to be the case.

Sokka’s jaw dropped to the floor while Toph and Suki looked astonished. No one said anything.

“YOU WHAT?!” Sokka cried out.

“It wasn’t anything serious”, Aang tried to explain, “It was just kind of a onetime thing.”

Aang had a feeling Mai purposely outed him because of Katara. It had to be the only reason that she would do it. Mai was a private person, so he figured that she only said what she said to hurt Katara.

After hearing Aang’s explanation, Katara quietly let out a sigh of relief.

“And you wonder why I made sure all your blind dates were older than you. You have a type Twinkle toes.” Toph muttered.

Aang pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned, “Noooo, it isn’t like that Toph. I swear these things just happen to me.”

“I have no doubt about that, but let’s look at the statistics. All the girls that you have ever kissed were older than you.” Toph grinned.

‘ _Girls? As in plural? So the whole time I was worried sick about him, he was kissing other girls! How many other girls did he kiss?!_ ’, hearing that she wasn’t the only girl he ever kissed was news to Katara. She couldn’t wait much longer, she had to talk to Aang.

“Aang” she called out to him. Aang turned to her, feeling his anxiety rise up. “Can we please talk?”

“Yeah…o-of course. Let’s talk in the backyard.”

Katara dropped her bag on to the table and the two went to the back and outside. There was a pond in the backyard. Aang looked up to see a bright blue sky with no cloud in sight. It was a beautiful day. Katara stood next to him, watching him from the corner of her eye. Physically, Aang had changed from a cute boy to a handsome young man. She hoped that he didn’t change too much. She turned her body to face him and bowed her head.

“I’m sorry Aang.” 

Aang looked down from the sky and turned to her, confused at her actions.

“Please stop bowing Katara. You don’t need to apologize to me.”

“Yes I do!”, she replied as she raised her head, “My behavior with you was wrong and I attacked you. I shouldn’t have acted the way that I did.”

“No, you only wanted to spend time with me after I was gone for so long. I’m the one that should be apologizing to you.”

“I can’t fault you for doing what you believed was best for you. I’m sure that you thought long and hard about it. It couldn’t have been easy for after you found out about me and Zuko the way that you did.”

“Even so, I could have controlled my emotions better. I’m the Avatar after all.”

“The avatar is just a part of who you are Aang. You’re still human. You already gave your apology to me through Sokka even though you didn’t have to.”

Katara had a point. She always seemed to say the right things. There was a reason why they got along so well when they first met and instantly became best friends after all. Aang didn’t see any point in arguing about who should be sorry so he decided to let it go.

“Then let’s just both agree to accept each other’s apology and move on.” Aang suggested. 

“Fine, as long as we’re both on the same page.” Katara smiled. She brought her arms up to reach out for him, “The last time I saw you, I never got a chance to hug you. Can I? Please.”

A small part of him wanted didn’t want to touch her, fearing what it would do to him mentally. It wasn’t until he saw Katara blushing that he decided to give her what she wanted. Without answering her, Aang wrapped his arms around her waist. She eagerly wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulders and held on to him with a tight grip. Not daring to let go of him for even a second.

She felt a warm feeling bubbling inside of her. Being in his arms again after what felt like ages felt right. She wanted to stay like this forever. For Aang the feeling was similar, he had always enjoyed the hugs they shared. He felt like he was at home when she held him like this. The air bender didn’t want to be anywhere else. 

Aang then felt her body start to tremble. He tried to pull back, but she kept him held tight against her body.

“Katara what’s wrong?” He asked. He heard whimpering and realized that she was crying.

“I-I…I missed you so m-m-m-uch Aang.” Katara sobbed on his shoulder. Her voice muffled as she spoke, “I was so s-s-scared that I would never going to see y-you again. To find out that you w-were a-a-a-voiding me…it hurt me. Y-y-y-you mean so much to me A-a-aang.”

“I missed you too. It was never my intention to hurt you. I’m sorry” Aang replied, giving her a squeeze as he felt guilty for what he did to her. The others had informed him of what his sudden departure did to her and how deeply affected she was. He underestimated how much he mattered to her.

“I understand why you did it, so you don’t need to apologize to me. We already agreed to move on from apologies…I just want you to know that there wasn’t a single day where I didn’t think about you.” Katara sniffled. 

For a while, neither of them said anything and just basked in each other. Katara was the first to pull her head back, but she still held on to him. Her tearful ocean blue eyes gazing on to his storm gray eyes. She pulled her arms back slowly and cupped his face in her hands. A sense of Déjà vu came to the air bender.

“Aang…I…” She whispered to him. Aang’s body turned to stone under her watchful gaze, staying in place and keeping his mouth shut. It was as if she put him under a spell. Katara moved her face towards him. Her lips barely an inch away from him. Aang wanted to back off but his body willed him to stay where he was. He felt the heat of her breath on his lips.

“Hey Aang!” A voice yelled out, making them both jump from each other. They looked to see Suki standing by the door.

“Toph told me to remind you about your early evening date. It’s time for you to get ready for it.” Suki said.

“Oh…um okay. I’ll get started.” Aang replied. He gave Katara a quick smile and walked back into the house. Katara fumed, her time to show Aang how she felt was ruined by Suki’s convenient timing. She glared at the Kyoshi warrior and marched towards her.

“Were you spying on us the whole time?”

Suki was unfazed by the question and glare she was receiving from Katara. “Maybe I was. Maybe I wasn’t.”

“What is your deal?!” Katara demanded.

“My deal is that it is too soon for you to be telling Aang that you love him. You can’t just rush romance with him after everything you two have been through this year. It could make things between you two worse. You have to take it slow and work on being best friends again first before trying to become more than that.” Suki responded.

“You and Toph will set him on blind dates with other girls but want to forbid me from telling him that I love him now? What if he falls for one of the girls he goes on a date with before I get the chance to tell him how I feel? I can’t lose Aang again…I just can’t.” Katara’s eyes threatened to tear up again.

Suki sighed. She knew Katara had a point. There was a chance that Aang would find someone else to love but she had a feeling it wouldn’t be anytime soon. Not with how his luck on these dates had been. Aang had already went on a number of dates and none of them connected to him the way Katara had. Suki believed that Katara was telling the truth when she said she loved Aang, but it was only thanks to Zuko that she was able to realize it. That alone didn’t sit with well with Suki. 

“Katara I assure you that you won’t lose Aang. He has yet to find a girl that he felt strongly about since you. Just trust me on this.”

“Fine…” Katara sighed and wiped her eyes.

As much as Katara didn’t want to give up, she didn’t want to get keep fighting her friend over this. Suki was a good friend to her since Sokka and Zuko brought her back from the boiling rock. Toph wasn’t much of a girl friend due to her tomboyish nature so Katara relied on Suki to talk about what she could never talk about with the boys. Suki always helped Katara when she needed it. She could only assume that she was looking out for her and Aang’s wellbeing. For now, she would heed Suki’s words and hold herself back. Physically and emotionally, Katara was exhausted and elected to rest in her room. 

* * *

An hour later Katara woke up thanks to the voices she heard coming from outside her window. After she rose from her bed and open the window, she saw Aang and Suki standing outside of the front entrance. From what she could see, Aang was wearing robes similar to what he wore at Zuko’s coronation except the colors were orange and green now. She couldn’t help but think of how handsome he looked. Just then a green carriage stopped in front of them and Aang turned to Suki. Katara noticed how much closer Aang and Suki were now as friends.

“I’m off then. I hope this girl isn’t another Mira.” Aang commented. Suki placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah let’s hope. Did Toph tell you anything about this girl?”

“She said she forgot, but I’m fine going in without knowing anything. It makes the date more interesting if I don’t know anything about them.”

“Probably for the best.”, Suki pulled him in for a quick hug, “Good luck Aang.”

Aang returned the hug, “Thank you Suki…for everything. Especially last night, you really helped me out.”

‘ _What happened last night? Did Aang get hurt?_ ’, Katara wondered as she continued eavesdropping on them.

“I’ll always be here for you Aang.” Suki replied, letting him go and then giving him a kiss on his cheek. Katara instinctively gripped the window frame hard as she saw, narrowing her eyes at Suki.

‘ _So that’s how it is. No wonder she didn’t want me to tell Aang anything! She just wants him to herself. She’s probably stringing Sokka along until she finds the right time to dump him for Aang._ ’

Katara decided right then and there that she was going to have a “talk” with Suki later.

* * *

Once again, Aang found himself waiting at the badger mole diner. If he was going to be honest, he was getting tired of the restaurant. He had nothing against the food he was served. He would just like a new change of scenery. He tried to bring it up with Toph about a change in restaurants, but she refused.

“The badger mole diner is the perfect restaurant! I don’t care if you’re tired of it.”, was all that she would say on the matter. Toph seemed to have a bias when it came to this particular restaurant. Aang had no choice but to suck it up.

His mind then drifted to Katara. Now that she was no longer with Zuko then what did it mean for him? What was going to happen next between them? After they had apologized to each other Aang had hoped that they could go back to being friends again, until Katara nearly kissed him. He was quite surprised with himself. He had wanted to kiss her, but also didn’t want to. He was confused as to why he felt that way. For a while he replayed what happened earlier in his head to make sense of everything until a female voice called out to him.

“I sure missed seeing your handsome face.”

Aang looked up to see who it was, his eyes went wide when he recognized her.

“Kano?!”


End file.
